A silence ensued; and then our conductor got down, running forward to
see what was the matter. The three in the _coupe_ saw their alert friend
of the _banquette_ descend; which caused Velvet-cap to bestir himself,
and let down the window. Not obtaining any satisfactory information by
looking out into the darkness and confusion, he opened the door also,
and called to some one to help him forth. Whereupon he found himself in
the arms of the maudlin postilion; who, taking him doubtless for some
foreign lady passenger in great alarm, hugged him affectionately,
stuttering out, "N'ayez pas peur! Point de danger! point de danger!"
"Get off with you, will you?" was the ejaculation from Velvet-cap, as he
pushed away the man, and went in search of his alert friend.
The latter soon came running back to the coach-side, bidding the sisters
get out quickly and come and look at what was well worth seeing.
It was indeed! There lay a gigantic mass of earth, stones, and trees,
among which were several large blocks of solid rock, hurled across the
road, showing a jagged outline against the night-sky, like an
interposing mountain-barrier but just recently dropped in their path.
The whole had fallen not an hour ago; and it was matter of
congratulation to the four, that it had not done so at the very moment
their diligence passed beneath.
There was nothing to be done but what the voice (which proved to be that
of the conductor belonging to the other diligence) had proposed, namely,
to go back to San Remo.
Here the travellers of both diligences soon arrived; the four, as they
passed to their rooms, hearing the British accent on the landing, in
disconsolate appeal to a waiter: "Oh!--look here,--sack, you know, sack,
sack!"
"Oui, monsieur; votre sac de nuit. Il est en bas,--en bas, sur la
diligence. On le montera bientot."
The lady whose spirits rose at night was flitting about, brisk as a bee,
getting morsels of bread and dipping them into wine to revive her
sister; who, worn out with fatigue and exhaustion, sat in a collapsed
and speechless state on a sofa.
Next morning, however, she was herself again, and able to note the owner
of the British accent, who had certainly obtained his desired
carpet-bag, since there he was, at the _coupe_ window, brushed and
beaming, addressing Velvet-cap with, "Excuse me, as an Englishman; but,
could you oblige me with change for a napoleon? I want it to pay my bill
with. They could get some from the next shop, if these jabbering fellows
would but understand, and go and try."
The morning-animated sister was now also able to observe upon the more
promising aspect of the weather, which was evidently clearing up; for it
not only did not rain, but showed streaks of brightness over the sea, in
lines between the hitherto unbroken gray clouds. She adverted to the
pleasant look of the cap-lifting _cantonniers_, as they stood drawn up
and nodding encouragement at the diligence, near the mass of earth which
had fallen overnight; and which they, by dint of several hours' hard
work from long before dawn, had sufficiently dug away to admit of
present passage. She said how comforting the sight of their honest
weather-lined faces was, bright with the touch of morning and early
good-humor.
This brought a muttered rejoinder from the other sister; who, huddled up
in one corner, still half asleep, remarked that the faces of the
_cantonniers_ were surely far more comforting when visible by the light
of the diligence-lamp, coming to bring succor amid darkness and danger.
"But it is precisely because they are never to be seen during the
darkness, when danger is increased by there rarely being help at hand,
that I dread and dislike night," returned Morning-lover.
"How oppressive the scent of those truffles is, the first thing after
breakfast!" exclaimed Night-favorer.
"I had not yet perceived it," replied Morning-lover. "Last evening,
indeed, after a whole day's haunting with it, the smell of that hamper
of truffles which the conductor took up at Finale was almost
insupportable; but now, in the fresh morning air, it is anything but
disagreeable. I shall never hereafter encounter the scent of truffles
without being forcibly reminded of all the incidents of this journey.
That smell seems absolutely interwoven with images of torrent-crossing,
cliff-falling, pouring rain, and roaring waves."
The talk fell upon associations of sense with events and places; sounds,
sights, and scents, intimately connected with and vividly recalling
certain occurrences of our lives. We had missed the glimpse of the baby
face and little white cap from the back of the diligence that preceded
us during the first portion of the day, owing to our coach having been
delayed at Ventimiglia by some peculiar arrangement which required the
team that had dragged us up a steep ascent to stop and bait,--merely
resting instead of changing, before we went on again.
The Pont St. Louis, with the picturesque ravine it crosses, had been
passed, and the pretty town of Mentone was full in view, when we caught
sight of the other diligence, some way on the road before us, brought
once more to a stand-still, while a crowd of persons surrounded it, and
its passengers were to be seen, in the distance, descending, with the
baby cap among them. At this instant, an excited French official darted
out from a doorway by the side of the road near us, raising his arms
distractedly, and throwing his sentences up at the conductor, who
understood him to say that there was no going on; that a whole garden
had come tumbling down across the road just at the entrance to Mentone,
and prevented passing.
We drove on to the spot, and found it was indeed so; the grounds of a
villa, skirting the highway on a terrace-ledge, had been loosened by the
many days' rain, and had fallen during the forenoon, a heap of
ruins,--shrubs, plants, garden-walls, flowers, borders, railings,--one
mass of obstruction.
With a glance at the _coupe_ passengers, another French official (the
newly-appointed frontier custom-house being close at hand) stepped
forward to suggest that the "insides" could be accommodated, during the
interim required for the _cantonniers_ to do their work, at a
lately-built hotel he pointed to; but the four agreed to spend the time
in walking round by the path above the obstruction, so as to see its
whole extent.
The wet, percolating and penetrating through the softer soil, gradually
accumulates a weight of water behind and beneath the harder and rockier
portions, which dislodges them from their places, pushes them forward,
and finally topples them over headlong. This is generally prevented
where terrace-walls are built up, by leaving holes here and there in the
structure, which allow the wet to drain through innocuously; but if, as
in the present instance, this caution be neglected, many days'
successive rain is almost sure to produce the disaster in question. It
had a woful look,--all those garden elegances cast there, flung out upon
the high-road, like discarded rubbish; pots of selected flowers,
favorite seats, well-worn paths, carefully-tended beds, trailing
climbers, torn and snapped branches, all lying to be shovelled away as
fast as the road-menders could ply their pickaxes and spades.
At length this task was accomplished; the diligences were hauled over
the broken ground (their contents being also "hauled over" at the
custom-house); the passengers (after the important ceremonial of handing
their passports for inspection, and having them handed back by
personages who kept their countenances wonderfully) were in again and
off again.
But one more torrent to cross,--where the foremost coach had nearly been
overset, and where the occupants of the hindmost one, profiting by
example, got out and walked over the footbridge, in time to behold the
owner of the British accent wave his hat triumphantly from the _coupe_
with a hearty (English) "Huzza!" as the vehicle recovered, by a violent
lurch to the left, from an equally violent one to the right, issuing
scathless from the last flood that lay in the way,--and then both
diligences began at a leisurely pace to crawl up a long ascent of road,
bordered on each side by olive-grounds;--until the view opened to a
fine stretch of prospect, now colored and vivified by a glance of the
afternoon sun,--the diminutive peninsular kingdom of Monaco, lying down
in the very sea, bright, and green, and fairy-like; the bold barren crag
of the Turbia rock frowning sternly in front, with its antique Roman
tower and modern Italian church; the rocky heights above to the right,
with their foreground of olive-trees, vine-trellises, and orange-groves,
interspersed with country-houses; while through all wound the
ever-climbing road, a white thread in the distance, with the telegraphic
poles, dwindled to pin-like dimensions, indicating its numberless turns
and bends.
As the sun sank over the far western lines of the Estrelle Mountains,
and the sky faded into grayish purple, succeeded by an ever-deepening
suffusion of black, unpierced by a single star, the high reach of road
above Villafranca Bay was passed; and, on our turning the corner of the
last intervening upland, full in view came the many lights of Nice, with
its castled rock, its minarets and cupolas, its stretch of sea, its look
of sheltered repose;--all most welcome to sight, after our sensational
journey on the Cornice Road in a great rain.