Soon after sun-set, we came to Neuss, which, as it is a post town, and
was mentioned as far off as Xanten, we had been sure would afford a
comfortable lodging, whether there were any vestiges, or not, of its
ancient and modern history. The view of it, at some little distance,
did not altogether contradict this notion, for it stands upon a gentle
ascent, and the spires of several convents might justly give ideas of
a considerable town to those, who had not learned how slightly such
symptoms are to be attended to in Germany.
On each side of the gate, cannon balls of various sizes remain in the
walls. Within, you enter immediately into a close street of high,
but dirty stone houses, from which you expect to escape presently,
supposing it to be only some wretched quarter, appropriated to
disease and misfortune. You see no passengers, but, at the door of
every house, an haggard group of men and women stare upon you with
looks of hungry rage, rather than curiosity, and their gaunt figures
excite, at first, more fear than pity. Continuing to look for the
better quarter, and to pass between houses, that seem to have been left
after a siege and never entered since, the other gate of the town at
length appears, which you would rather pass at midnight than stop at
any place yet perceived. Within a small distance of the gate, there
is, however, a house with a wider front, and windows of unshattered
glass and walls not quite as black as the others, which is known to
be the inn only because the driver stops there, for, according to the
etiquette of sullenness in Germany, the people of the house make no
shew of receiving you.
If it had not already appeared, that there was no other inn, you might
learn it from the manners of the two hostesses and their servants.
Some sort of accommodation is, however, to be had; and those, who have
been longer from the civilities and assiduities of similar places in
England, may, by more submission and more patience, obtain it sooner
than we did. By these means they may reduce all their difficulties into
one, that of determining whether the windows shall be open or shut;
whether they will endure the closeness of the rooms, or will admit air,
loaded with the feculence of putrid kennels, that stagnate along the
whole town.
This is the _Novesium_ of Tacitus, the entrance of the thirteenth
legion into which he relates, at a time when the Rhine, _incognita illi
cœlo siccitate_, became _vix navium patiens_, and which VOCULA was soon
after compelled to surrender by the treachery of other leaders and
the corruption of his army, whom he addressed, just before his murder,
in the fine speech, beginning, "_Nunquam apud vos verba feci, aut pro
vobis solicitior, aut pro me securior_"; a passage so near to the
_cunctisque timentem, securumque sui_, by which LUCAN describes CATO,
that it must be supposed to have been inspired by it.
This place stood a siege, for twelve months, against 60,000 men,
commanded by CHARLES the BOLD, Duke of Burgundy, and succeeded in its
resistance. But, in 1586, when it held out for GEBHERT DE TRUSCHES, an
Elector of Cologne, expelled by his Chapter, for having married, it
was the scene of a dreadful calamity. FARNESE, the Spanish General,
who had just taken Venlo, marched against it with an army, enraged
at having lost the plunder of that place by a capitulation. When the
inhabitants of Neuss were upon the point of surrendering it, upon
similar terms, the army, resolving not to lose another prey of blood
and gold, rushed to the assault, set fire to the place, and murdered
all the inhabitants, except a few women and children, who took refuge
in two churches, which alone were saved from the flames.
When the first shock of the surprise, indignation and pity, excited
by the mention of such events, is overcome, we are, of course,
anxious to ascertain whether the perpetrators of them were previously
distinguished by a voluntary entrance into situations, that could be
supposed to mark their characters. This was the army of Philip the
Second. The soldiers were probably, for the most part, forced into the
service. The officers, of whom only two are related to have opposed the
massacre, could not have been so.
What was then the previous distinction of the officers of Philip the
Second? But it is not proper to enter into a discussion here of the
nature of their employment.
Neuss was rebuilt, on the same spot; the situation being convenient for
an intercourse with the eastern shore of the Rhine, especially with
Dusseldorff, to which it is nearly opposite. The ancient walls were
partly restored by the French, in 1602. One of the churches, spared by
the Spaniards, was founded by a daughter of CHARLEMAGNE, in the ninth
century, and is now attached to the Chapter of Noble Ladies of St.
Quirin; besides which there are a Chapter of Canons, and five or six
convents in the place.