March 24, 1966.) And yet every one of these packages had its ticket and its number, and they were being wheeled away with unheard-of rapidity. When the opening of the doors allowed the ocean of excursionists to pour into the station, the very first wave filled a train, which was itself of so great from one a length that it constituted a journey to go end to the other. There were human beings enough to people a town. A second train was forthwith organized, in which our traveller, tourist, and feuilletonist obtained a seat. It was, he says, as long as that which had preceded it; and most assuredly the whole fleet of the Greeks starting for Troy conveyed fewer Acheans, with long hair and lustrous helmets, than that succession of boxes bore away of Parisians in Panama hats and summer paletots. The population of Mantes were busy preparing a tent for the reception of the Emperor. It was of crimson velvet, relieved with golden embroidery and garlands of flowers. Around were trophies, not of arms, but of railway implements. But the train went onwards. It was long since the sketches of Roberts, Prout, and Bonnington had made M. Gautier wish to see St. Peter's of Caen. He had been in Spain, in Africa, in Turkey, but he had never been to Caen. All England has, he says, been there, but it requires to be a stranger to appreciate a country. At the station at Caen, M. Théophile Gautier was much struck with a lofty chimney attached to steam-works, and which he declares to contain the rudiments of that new architecture which is seeking so painfully and so laboriously its new forms. More lofty than the obelisk of Luxor, this chimney, constructed of white and red bricks, is surmounted by a kind of capital, which makes it resemble a column of an unknown order, which may be designated as the "Industrial." It is thus that a new style of architecture, he argues, will arise from the new demands of the day, and not from mingling, right or wrong, the styles of all epochs. Inscriptions and transparencies, with scaffoldings and balconies to let, announced that the town was preparing to receive majesty. A triumphal arch was carried across the main street. It was a felicitous mixture of the arches of Titus and of Septimus Severus. Why, asks M. Gautier, are not edifices about to be constructed tried first after this plan? Irreparable errors would not then remain to be regretted. But imagine the expenses of an experimental wooden National Gallery, and the discordancy of national criticism previous to its being constructed in brick or stone! THE inventions of science transform the modern world without noise, and almost imperceptibly. Let us suppose ourselves (says M. Théophile Gautier) in 1813, at the epoch of the flooding of the inner port of Cherbourg, excavated by order of Napoleon I., and desirous of being present at the ceremony. No railroad, no steamboats; the classical diligence, or, if you prefer it, the post-chaise, the only means of transport. Add to this all the carriages, carts, and Caen, according to our art-critic, presents nothing wagons of every description, susceptible of move- particular to contemplate: it is an old city with a ment, and of being dragged by any kind of quadru-new face, medieval structures are still to be met ped, and calculate how many persons could be conveyed thither. In the present day, nothing is easier than to transport in a single day, from the centre of France to one of its extremities, a hundred thousand sight-seers. It is a mere question of multiplying the trains and the number of carriages. Such a thing would have seemed to be utterly chimerical at the commencement of the present century. We never could have dreamt that so many travelling-bags and portmanteaus were in existence. On the day of departure and on the preceding days, they were accumulating in pyramids nay, mountains at the station of the "West," where cabs were arriving one after the other, as if for a ball. What a crowd, what a tumult, what a bustle; with, but not in sufficient numbers to give a tone to the place. The red cap - "the Norman degeneration of the Phrygian cap, which on the head of Paris seduced Helena - is, however, still to be seen. A friend had retained a room at the Hôtel d'Angleterre, and, notwithstanding various rumors that were current of there not being a fowl within a circuit of ten leagues, of the buffet at the station having been stormed and devastated, of an omelet protected by four scullions, and of four fusiliers mounting guard over a fricandeau, our traveller declares that he fared well. If the stranger is desirous of seeing St. Peter's at Caen in all its beauty, he must place himself on the other side of the rivulet which bathes its outer walls. There is a stone there on which all " acquarellists' tanes." "Tossed about," says Théophile, "like a have by turns taken their seats. The rich Gothic, straw in the Parisian whirlpool, we have often said mingled with Renaissance of the cathedral, has an that Time no longer existed, save in gilt bronze on additional effect given to it by the mass of irregular, old clocks. Time does exist; we found it at Baydisorderly old houses, with projecting upper stories eux in a very good state of preservation, considering and broken outline of roofs, as also by the brook its age." itself, the course of which is obstructed by stones, The cathedral, as usual, fronts a "petite place." and its bed surmounted by a low, vaulted bridge. It has five porches, three of which alone are pierced M. Gautier is one of those who would not remove for doorways. Two of these porches are richly the excrescences in stones which are so generally decorated, especially with statues representing the grouped around old Gothic monuments, just as gi- dramas of the Passion and of the Last Judgment. gantic toadstools fix themselves to the base of an It was impossible to explore the interior satisfactoold oak-tree. Convert that rivulet, he says, into a rily; it was undergoing repairs so urgent, that if deregular canal, tumble down these old houses, and layed a little longer there was every possibility of erect new ones at a suitable distance, and St. Peter's the edifice sinking bodily. The choir is Gothic, but of Caen will remain a fine specimen of medieval the nave is Roman. Among the artistic curiosities architecture, but no artist will ever afterwards raise which most struck our virtuoso was an ancient sculphis umbrella on the opposite bank. That which ture coarsely colored, representing the litanies of the stands good of the Gothic does not obtain with re- Virgin in a manner which reminded him of the gengard to the Greek. The one affects the pointed, ealogical trees of Christ in Spanish churches. The the other the horizontal form. The latter requires Eternal Father was represented at the top unfolding to be detached, nay, more, it requires rock for a a banner, on which was inscribed Gloriosa dicta sunt contrast, as at Athens and in Sicily, as we have de te. Around were Abraham, Elias, Isaiah, David, ourselves before expounded. Saint Stephen's of Solomon, and Achas. In the centre, the litanies Caen is, according to our critic, notwithstanding its sculptured in relief, the rising sun, Jacob's ladder, Anglo-Norman outline, cold, naked, and Protestant- the gates of heaven, the star of the sea, the full looking, but the design is bold and pure. M. Gau- moon, the tree of life, the root of Jesse, the rose tier saw here, what he says is no longer to be wit-without thorns, the temple of Solomon, the tower of nessed in Paris, where religion is not permitted to David, the well of water, the vase of incense, the leave its sanctuary (what of the consecration of the fleece of Joshua, the fountain of graces, and the Eagles ?), the Holy Sacrament borne in procession celestial city. There were also medallions repreto a moribund. Nay, the procession, headed by the senting subjects taken from the bestiaries of the little choristers with their incense-vases, was pro- Middle Ages, precisely similar to what are found on tected by two soldiers with fixed bayonets. the casket of St. Louis, and belonging to the Trains of exceeding length continued to transport eleventh or twelfth century. There were hunters whole populations, which did not prevent a crowd conquering the lion, panthers chasing hydras, and of disappointed applicants for seats being left behind other allegories of faith triumphing over infidelity. at the station. Yet at every moment the telegraph One subject was supposed to represent Moses, atsounded its little bell, proclaiming the advent of a tacked, after the Oriental legends, by leprosy, eletrain. Thanks to this electric courier, whose swift-phantiasis, or some other Biblical infirmity, and miness nothing surpasses, the formidable horses of steel raculously cured. One of the arcades was surand copper, fed with fire and boiling water, could rounded by a string of heads, or rather masks, be allowed to gallop away without any accident which by their extravagance and monstrous ugliness coming to cast a gloom over the fête. "Canton- appeared to have been copied from Mexican idols, nières" in short petticoats and blue blouses, tightened or the Manitoos of the South-Sea Islanders. with a leather waistband, head-dress of varnished leather, and a horn slung to their sides, acted as signalmen. Women, M. Gautier says, are well adapted for such employment; they do not get sleepy and intoxicated, and they see and hear better than men. It is well to make a convenience out of a necessity, The men being for the most part decorated with red nether-garments, the women have to be put into blouses and leather hats. The crypt was of the purest Roman style, and served as a mausoleum for the bishops of Bayeux. In the chapter-room, a casket is preserved which contains the cope of Saint Regnabert. It is a marvellous piece of workmanship in ivory of Oriental carving, apparently brought over by the Crusaders, and upon it is an Arabic inscription: "In the name of Allah, the all-merciful, blessings and grace to all." Every one has heard of the Bayeux tapestry. According to M. Gautier, the so-called tapestry of Queen Matilda is an embroidery of colored wool upon white linen or canvas. It is preserved in a glass case, and our traveller pertinently remarks, what a strange thing it is, that whilst so many solid edifices have fallen to the ground, this frail piece of royal workmanship should have been handed down perfect amidst all kinds of vicissitudes and revolutions. A bit of canvas has lasted for eight hundred years ! M. Gautier seems to have been determined upon trying if he could not be as long in getting to Cherbourg by train as if he had gone by diligence, so he got out again at Bayeux, the view of which place, as seen from the station, struck him forcibly. A magnificent cathedral, with two pointed steeples and a tower at the intersection of the transept and the nave, as at Burgos, rose superbly over the houses, fluttering with flags and banners. There was no possibility of resisting a cathedral, and the day was passed in exploring that of Bayeux. The clerical No table-d'hôte, no buffet, could accommodate the element is strong in this town. The cathedral over- crowd which were hurrying to the fêtes of Chershadows the houses. The grass grew in the streets, bourg. At Carentan tents were erected for kitchalthough sanded for the fête. There were few shops, ens, and spitted meats turned round improvised but many long garden walls. An ecclesiastical re- fires, exhaling their appetizing odors, just as we read pose reigned everywhere, and priests flitted about in the Iliad of the fragrance of the victims ascendas at Rome. An almost solitary sign-board recorded ing to heaven to delight the nostrils of the gods. that the tenant was one "Manuel, Coupeur de Sou- | Darkness had come on, and our traveller had to wend his way, amid triumphal arches and masts In the future, as M. Théophile Gautier observes, all will be able to visit places which have been hitherto accessible only to the few, and we cannot begin too soon to accustom ourselves to the gigantic developments of life. Seven hundred and twenty persons, he tells us, breakfasted and dined in the immense shed of the extemporized camp at Cherbourg. Nothing could more effectually mark the differences between the present time and the past. Imagine a colossal gallery divided into two compartments, each with its tables. The kitchen at one of the extremities. As in all things that are too great, man was out of proportion with his surroundings. It would have required a railway with The legends of Carenton, which are not all in a little wagon to transport the dishes from the honor of hotel-keepers, have preserved the memory point of departure to the extremities. Relays of of a famous breakfast of Junot, Duke of Abrantes, garçons were, however, employed in transmitting for which he was charged twelve hundred francs. the viands, plates, and knives and forks. NotwithAstonished at the demand, the gallant hero requested standing the precautions taken of placing the bufsome details, in which a choice duck of Rouen, fat-fets at intervals, and of mustering the consumers in tened on finest flour, figured for five louis. After a fair night's rest, in which no spectre came to put out his light with bony fingers, and no bandit with Restaurants on a gigantic scale will be the feapointed hat and cock's feather came to take his ture of the future. London will come in a body to purse, M. Gautier paid less for his breakfast than dine at Paris, and Paris will go bodily to London. the Duke of Abrantés; but then, he says, there was Machines will carve; tenders laden with bottles will no duck. It was impossible to obtain a place hence be conveyed along the tables on silver rails; the to Cherbourg, so he had fain to be satisfied with a turtle-soup and the potage à la Reine will be pumped seat among the baggage, the angles of which, he out of the tureens; toasts will be given with speaksays, manifested a persevering hostility to his person. ing trumpets, and acoustic tubes will transmit mesCrossing the vast Marais," renowned for its water-sages from guests seated half a mile from one anfowl, the Fort of Roule, perched on a lofty eminence, whose precipitous acclivities displayed the naked rock, and the British flag towering over a tent, announced the approach to Cherbourg. The crowd tumbled out of the carriages, and our accomplished critic from off the hostile baggage, and where does the reader fancy they were received? The paternal character of a despotism is nowhere so much shown as in the arrangements made in France for the accommodation of the masses. In a camp! Yes, government had provided streets of tents, all bearing the names of distinguished persons or events, effectively palisaded, and having only one entrance, which was carefully guarded. Each tent contained three beds, and tickets were delivered to successive applicants, No. 1 bed, tent No. 103, Wagram Street. There was also a tent for information, a post-office, a marquee for a reading-room, and others for refreshments, with tables-d'hôte provided by Potel and Chabot. When was anything of the kind provided for the public in this land of ferocious egotism? Three gentlemen consigned to the same tent, in this country, must have an introduction; three roughs would fight it out before the morning. M. Gautier, accustomed as he was to French supervision and ingenuity, was struck with the exceeding forethought of such an arrangement, where the ordinary resources of the town were utterly unequal to the demands put upon them. It struck him that a camp thus improvised would become one of the institutions of the country. Any great event may, in railroad times, attract a hundred thousand spectators or more to one spot, every town ought, squadrons, the unfortunate attendants had traversed leagues by the end of every repast. 66 other. What would the Greeks have said, with their elegant precept as to a dinner, 'Not fewer than the Graces, not more than the Muses'? "This monstrously gigantic life of future generations occupied our thoughts all this journey, when we saw it first rudely sketched before us. Young forms are beginning everywhere to destroy the old moulds, and the old world, the world in which we have lived, is falling to pieces; although scarcely beyond the middle age, we are no longer contemporaneous with our epoch. None of the habits of our early youth remain, and no one thinks in the present day of what were our early passions. We must begin again like little children. We were acquainted with the metre of stanzas, the forms of sonnets, the music of rhythms; - a pretty thing indeed! We must study railway economy, permanent ways, locomotive powers, rolling stock, telegraphic signs, ironclads, and screw-steamers. If we make a mistake in the use of a word, the very boys laugh at us. We do not complain: we are at a climacteric epoch of humanity. This age will take a prominent place in the annals of the world, and it is now more than ever that the wise man's saying, 'I live by curiosity,' has a real meaning. Man valiantly petrifies his planet, and who lives shall see — great things." And of Cherbourg. "No spectacle," we are told, "gives a more legitimate satisfaction to human pride than that of a port, and especially such a port as Cherbourg. When we think that a poor little animalcule, acarus of a planet, a point lost in space, executes such gigantic works with a few iron utensils, a few handfuls of black powder to which The whole port was full of vessels of all descriptions, men-of-war, frigates, ironclads, steamers, boats, all decked out with flags, and so crowded that it appeared impossible for any one of them to stir from its place. A compact crowd moved slowly along the quays, and as to the steamers that plied between them and the roadstead, they were so full, that the axiom, “that that which holds should be greater than the contents," was for once utterly reversed. One can form no conception of such an agglomeration of human beings. he sets fire, one feels one's self filled with respect for | spectful a distance to distinguish the chances of the so ingenious an atom, for so persevering an ephem- contests. It was the same with regard to the review era. The ocean, with its immensity, is less power- of the fleet. It is true that the great guns saluted ful than he is." And à propos of the ocean. "Let the august visitors audibly, and lights were seen to us," says Théophile, "leave our card, as it is proper burst from a white cloud, a sound like a clap of to do, on old Father Ocean, whose passions will no thunder was heard, and then the great ships were longer terrify any one; day and night he receives enveloped in smoke, like the sides of a mountain blows from gigantic paddles without the least resent- with vapor. The sun seen behind these clouds had ment, and he bears in his green bosom the Transat- a remarkable effect. The discharges of the guns follantic cable without being able to decipher the mes-lowed one another with chronometrical precision, sages that are exchanged between the Old World without intervals, and yet separate. What close and the New." (We wish it only were so.) "Poor logicians! they gave reason upon reason. And the old Ocean become a mere postman! Separating first series of arguments exhausted, a second took nothing, preventing nothing, its very immensity is up the discussion, and so on through the whole fleet. merely relative, for it is crossed in a week. Its Ancient civilization was on the scale of man, modern beauty alone remains." civilization is on the scale of humanity. Hence, great guns are much better adapted for a festival in the present day than little flutes. The whole population of Attica did not equal the number of visitors to Cherbourg. The fireworks at sea were pretty, but the effect was much diminished by the immensity of the space. To the spectators who lined the shore, it would have required colossal rockets loaded with hundred-weights of powder to vie with ocean and sky. Those on the "Place d'Armes" were more effective. M. Théophile is candid enough to admit that he has the passion of a Chinaman for fireworks; The railway company of the "West" had char- and who does not admire the wondrous transformatered the steamboat L'Eclair for its passengers, and tions of light and form, and the play of incandescent it is impossible to conceive with what dexterity and rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and topazes? The celerity it bore its living freight amidst this forest chief piece represented the equestrian statue of Naof ships, going and coming, and yet allowing every-poleon I., the original of which, by Leveel, domithing to be seen that was worth seeing. Théophile says that on passing out of the harbor into the road- An agreeable surprise awaited our traveller on stead he could not refrain an exclamation of admi- his return to the camp. A theatre had been imration; it was a serious infraction of the rule of provised at the station. There were both vaudeville dandyism, for to admire is to exhibit one's own and pantomime. Madame Doche, and an actor of inferiority; but he is not, he says, a dandy, and the name of Poirier, performed "Un Monsieur et the spectacle that confronted him was marvellous! une Dame"; Deburau and his troop, " Pierrot coifThe yacht which had brought her Britannic Ma- feur." This is another hint for the master of cerejesty was in the roadstead, its paddle-boxes painted monies, who will be an indispensable adjunct to the straw-yellow, and its chimneys of a salmon-color: the "British Excursionist Camp Hostelry Company' Royal Albert floated close by, like a respectful body- (limited liability and unlimited accommodation). guard, its tapering sides reminding our traveller of Unfortunately, the only scene available represented the old French forms of the time of Louis XIV. a forest, and was not precisely adapted for the inciBeyond, describing a slightly curved arc, was the dent of a gentleman and a lady obliged to pass the flotilla of yachts, "for the most part," we are told, night in the same room at an inn. Again, what is "English." (Were there half a dozen that were always disagreeable to artists, in the midst of their French ?) "There could not be less than one hun-zealous exertions a hiss now and then made itself dred and fifty to two hundred of the most exqui- significantly heard; but it came from the brazen site shapes, built of teak or other valuable woods, lungs of a locomotive letting off its steam, for the and most richly furnished. This is a charming lux- theatricals were in no way permitted to interfere ury, which our sportsmen will also provide for them- with the railway trains, which kept arriving, staring selves when Paris shall have become a seaport; they at the stage with their great red eyes, and bringing will find ready-made crews among the canotiers' of with them crowds of new-comers. the Seine!" ་ Every minute packet-boats were arriving from Southampton, New Haven, Hâvre, Trouville, and Rouen; so crowded, that not a particle of the deck was to be seen, nothing but hats and dark-colored coats. Beyond all, were the French men-of-war: Saint Louis, Alexandre, Austerlitz, Ulm, Donawerth, Napoleon, Eylau, Bretagne, Isly (not one name recorded a great naval victory), which, disposed in a line at regular distances, displayed to the greatest advantage "that grandiose outline with severe elegance, which is characteristic of our navy." "Severe elegance" is not an inapt term by which to describe the modern ironclads, which have few pretensions to grace. Then there were regattas; but our Parisian admits that the "embarkations were kept at too re nates the ocean on its granite pedestal. An early walk next morning before breakfast took M. Gautier to the château of Tourlaville, some three miles from Cherbourg, and of which he had heard much. It is an old ruinous castle, with a legend like those on the Rhine. It is a pretty walk, too, up hills, from whence Cherbourg, its harbors, and roadstead, are all seen to advantage. This castle, just sufficiently ruinous to be picturesque, is said to have been formerly inhabited by the family of Ravalets, who held the lordship of Tourlaville. Two descendants of this house, Julien de Ravalet, and the beautiful Margaret his sister, wife of John the Falconer, were said to have been guilty of incest, and were both condemned to death, and executed on the Place de la Grève, at Paris, on the 2d of December, 1603. On his return to Cherbourg, Théophile found the Every Saturday, THE GOOD SHIP SHOOTING STAR. a better wessel than the Shooting Star I don't hope She's sound, Mr. Blizzard, I do believe, whole of the population, local and foreign, in moveThe only ment to see the filling of the new port Napoleon, to see. and the launch of the Ville de Nantes. The ocean from main truck to keel, sound, if I may use the precipitated itself through the ruins of the gaps expression, as a pious man's conscience. opened for its ingress, carrying stones and earth, thing that wexes me, howsomever, is that, having piles and planks, before it; and soon the granite bot-been sent for to my native place, down Allonby way, tom, which no human eye may ever see again, dis-on very sad business" (here the captain held up sor"I could n't see to the lading of this ere vessel as I appeared beneath the torrent. Two Niagaras pour- rowfully an enormous hat covered with black crape,) ing their waters into the gigantic bowl, took from two to three hours to fill it. But by the time anti-generally likes to do with wessels I am called upon cipated the water attained the proper elevation, and to command." the signal was given from the Imperial stand to Nothing," we are launch the Ville de Nantes. told, "can be more noble or more majestic than a ship taking possession of the sea!" Next day the equestrian statue of Napoleon I. was unveiled, and Théophile Gautier returned to Paris, " to see if the vaudeville and the drama had behaved themselves well in his absence." 46 THE GOOD SHIP SHOOTING STAR. I. "CAPTAIN RITSON, allow me to introduce to you Mr. Pennant, your new purser. Mr. Pennant, pray take a chair, while I have a little talk on business with Captain Ritson." Mr. Blizzard, of the firm of David and Blizzard, 72 Limehouse Street, Liverpool, continued: - Captain Ritson, we want to make this first trip of the Shooting Star an auspicious trip; we want to have our vessel the first into Quebec this year. We save the dues; for they always return the dues to the first vessel that arrives from England; but it is not so much for the sake of the value of the dues as the éclat of the thing. Our trade with Canada is large, and we want to get our name up. We do not, of course, want you to run any danger. No, that is by no means the wish of the firm; but we wish you to skirt the ice, and run in on the very first opening. You will get off Labrador just in time for the frost to have thawed, and, with care, there need be no risk whatever." Mr. Blizzard said all this leaning against his railed desk, and nestled in among the files of invoices and bills of lading. He was a hearty, fresh-colored, portly man, very neat in his dress, and remarkable for a white waistcoat, that seemed as hard and He played with his watchstainless as enamel. chain as he spoke, and eyed the captain, the purser, and the first mate, who sat in an uncomfortable With his well-polished boots planted half-circle. on the immovable rock of a large capital, Mr. Blizzard seemed to look boldly seaward metaphorically, and consider wrecks and such casualties as mere well-devised fictions. Captain Ritson was a big North-countryman, with a broad acreage of chest, clear gray eyes, and a sturdy, honest, self-reliant large, red hands, man, without a fear in the world. The mate, Mr. Cardew, by no means so pleasant to look on, being a little, spare, thin-legged, cadaverous person, with yellowish eyes, sat in sullen subserviency on the very edge of his chair just behind the captain. The purser, a brisk, cheery, stout young fellow, sat deprecatingly (as if he thought he ought to stand) a trifle farther back still. "That is of no consequence at all, Captain Rit- -?" Mr. Blizzard referred to a ledger for this information, as he spoke, as if he scarcely knew, in his multiplicity of business, whether the Shooting Star might not be laden with frankincense, pearls, golddust, and poll-parrots, but he would see. Having ascertained the fact, Mr. Blizzard carefully replaced the ledger, and, turning his back on his company, poked the fire, and consulted a large sheet almanac over the mantel-piece, as a sign the interview was over. "We sail to-morrow morning, Sunday," said Captain Ritson, who was a Wesleyan, to the purser, as they left the office of Messrs. David and Blizzard; "I likes to hear the blessed Sabbath bells calling to one another as I go out of the Mersey, and the men like it; and, what's more, it's lucky. It's like the land taking leave of us, as I always say, giving a sort of blessing on the ship; at least, I'm a plain man, and that's how I take it. It's the day I always start, Sunday is." The purser expressed his hope that he should suc- "O, you'll do, young man, I can see; don't you II. "JOE," said the purser's wife, when Pennant re- "Right it is, Mister Blizzard," said the captain, buttoning his pilot-coat across his chest, as if preparing for an immediate gale, and about to order everything to be battened down. 66 A |