CHAPTER XXIII.BASALT MOUNTAINS ... ANDERNACH ... ANECDOTE OF GENERAL HOCHE ... RHENISH FLOATS ... SINGULAR ACCIDENT ... FRENCH POLICE ... NEUWEID ... THE RHINE BOAT ... TOMB OF GENERAL MARCEAU ... ANECDOTE OF FRENCH HEROISM ... COBLENTZ ... ITS SURRENDER TO THE FRENCH ARMS ... ANEDOTE OF FRENCH VIVACITY ... THE ROCK AND FORTRESS OF EHRENBREITSTEIN ... THE GRIFFON ... STUPENDOUS FRENCH ROADS ... BOPPART.
Almost all the immense mass of mountains which extend from Bonn to Andernach, is composed of the basalt and slate; the former has a more artificial appearance than almost any other mineral production. In no form can it puzzle the philosopher more than at the Giant’s Causeway, in Ireland, where it assumes a columnar shape, which has every appearance of having been chisseled by the hand of a skilful mason, and of having been regular granite cooling after fusion, and formed into regular masses by crystallization. In the small cavities of these mountains the martins and swallows find refuge, and in a comfortable state of torpidity pass through the cold and cheerless weather of winter. The children of the peasantry amuse themselves in discovering their retreats, at an apparent exposure of their own lives.
In an amphitheatre of vast dusky basalt mountains, the sombre gates, towers and pinnacles of Andernach appeared: in consequence of the river making a long sweep, I landed with an intention of rejoining the boat at a village named by the skipper; a more solemn scene of gloom and grandeur, I never contemplated: the ruins of this town towards Coblentz are of great antiquity. The inhabitants insist upon it, that the remains of the EmperorValentine are deposited in one of their churches, and that Julius Cæsar when he so victoriously fought against the Suabians, passed over the Rhine at this spot, where Drusus the general of Augustus, built one of those fifty castles which are erected on the banks of the Rhine: but the French, who narrowly investigated every part of the river which their victorious arms enabled them to visit, with great acuteness, and with the assistance of history, believe that this celebrated landing was effected a little higher up the river, a short distance from Engers, at a place called the White Tower (der Weisse Thurm), the venerable front of which I saw as I afterwards advanced on our right, in the centre of a sudden recess of the river, where it has the appearance of having served the united purposes of a castle and a watch tower; at its base is a considerable village, which formerly belonged to the Elector of Treves: this situation is from a combination of local advantages, peculiarly favorable to the completion of such a passage, and in confirmation of the opinion, a great number of Roman antiquities have been found there. General Hoche, at the head of an immense army, aided by the obscurity of the night, crossed the Rhine at this place in 1797, and astonished the imperial troops the next morning by their presence.
This was the last exploit of that general. Near this tower there are deposited his remains, over which a mausoleum has been erected. This young commander died of an enlargement of the heart at Wetzlar. His funeral was conducted with uncommon military pomp. The procession moved from the place where he died, across the Rhine to the White Tower, amidst the discharge of cannon, which were fired every quarter of an hour.
The trade of the Rhine is here very flourishing, for exclusive of the neighbouring vineyards which produce fine wines, and the basalts of the adjoining mountains used for building and paving, this city derives considerable wealth from the lapis tophaceus or tuf stone, the harder sort of which form excellent millstones; vast quantities are shipped for Holland, to construct or repair its dykes with, and the more friable is used for building, whilst its powder mixed with lime forms the hardest and most durable cement.I saw the cabins of several treckschuyts in Holland covered with it, which were perfectly impervious to the rain: the Germans also use it to floor their houses with. This stone is considered to be a species of the pumice-stone, or imperfect lava, and of volcanic production.
On the banks leading to this city, I saw part of one of those amazing floats of timber which are formed of lesser ones, conveyed to this city from the forests adjoining the Rhine, the Moselle, the Maine, &c.; these floats are attached to each other, and form a platform generally of the enormous dimensions of eight hundred feet in length, and one hundred and sixty in breadth, upon which a little village containing about eighty wooden houses is erected for the accommodation of those who are interested in, and assist in navigating this stupendous raft, frequently amounting to seven and eight hundred persons, men, women, and children; besides these buildings, there are stalls for cattle, slaughtering houses, and magazines for provisions: the float is prevented from striking against the shores, where the turnings are abrupt, by the application of thirty or forty anchors, which with the necessary cables are conveyed in fourteen or fifteen boats which precede it, and its course is safely directed by German and Dutch pilots, who are hired for the purpose.
After great rains when the current is rapid, the whole is entrusted to its propelling force, otherwise several hundred persons are employed in rowing, who move their oars at a given word of command. The whole of these wonderful moving masses is under the entire direction of a governor or superintendant, and several officers under him. Sometimes they are months in performing their voyage, in consequence of the water being low, in which case they are obliged to wait till the river is swelled by the rains. In this manner they float from thehighto thelowcountries, and upon their arrival at the place of destination, the whole is broken up, and finds a ready market. About twelve of them annually arrive at Dort, in Holland, in the months of July and August, where these German timber-merchants having converted their floats intogood Dutch ducats, return to their own country with their families, to enjoy the produce of their labour and enterprize.
The clergy and monks in Andernach used to be, to use a good humoured homely expression of a late illustrious statesman, upon an application made to him for a place under his administration “as thick as five in a bed;” beside six vicars belonging to a large parish church, there were no less than five crowded convents, and the population did not exceed four thousand souls: the convents are now converted into garrisons for French soldiers, and storehouses for tradesmen. After viewing the city, I set off on the road to Coblentz, with a view of meeting the boat at the place appointed, and after walking about two miles, I lost all traces of the river; however, observing about three parts of a mile off, the tops of a long semicircular line of poplars, I concluded the river flowed by them, and I accordingly endeavoured to penetrate to the bank through a large willow wood, in which I soon lost myself. At last, however, I succeeded in forcing a way into a little footpath, in pursuing which I suddenly came upon a Frenchman, poorly clothed in green, with a book in his hand; he courteously addressed me, remarked that I looked rather warm, and conducted me to a recess in the wood, close to the water, where there was a bed of straw and a gun: at first I regarded him as a robber, but he soon gave me to understand that he was a link in a vast chain, composed of forty thousand soldiers, placed in this sort of ambuscade at the distance of a gun shot from each other, by the orders of the government of France, to guard the left bank of the Rhine from smugglers; and that to prevent contraband practices, no boat is suffered to pass either up or down the river after sunset, without being fired upon; that they are always clothed in a sombre dress, to prevent observation, and are concealed in this manner wherever the sides of the river will admit of it. Upon my informing him that I had lost my way and my boat, he politely assured me that it had not yet ascended the river, and hailed a little punt passing by, which enabled me to regain the vessel, then very fortunately just approaching. Notwithstanding the vigilanceof the French police, the rafts I have described carry on a considerable contraband trade in the Rhine wines and Seltzer water.
Opposite to the spot where this occurrence took place, at the bottom of a range of hills, is the delightful town and palace of Neuwied, built of white stone, at one end of the line of poplars which I have mentioned, and almost the only town I saw without walls or any sort of fortification on the Rhine. Nothing could exceed the air of happiness and prosperity which seemed to reign in this delectable little capital, which looked perfectly fresh and new, the prince of which receives, because he deserves, the affections of his subjects; every one on board, with great vivacity, spoke of the toleration, the liberal extension of the rights of citizenship to foreigners, and the public spirit of its ruler. The place is enriched by several flourishing iron works, steel, paper, and cotton manufactures (the latter, the first introduced into Germany), printing, watch, and ingenious cabinet-making. Before the last war, in the forges and founderies, and different fabrics, not less than four thousand persons were employed, and their circulation at a fair has been known to amount to forty or fifty thousand florins. There is an establishment of Moravian brethren here more numerous than that at Zeyst. The last and the present wars have of course considerably reduced the number of workmen, by forcing many of them into the army; but, notwithstanding, there is no town on the Rhine in a more enviable condition, for every thing which can impart content and felicity to man. It was a curious and highly interesting circumstance to see in Neuwied and Andernach, almost opposite to each other, the most modern and the most ancient city on the Rhine. The price of freight upon the Rhine is rather high: before the French united together so many petty sovereignties it was much higher, owing to the number of tolls which were paid to each; previous to that event there were no less than twelve tolls to discharge between Cologne and Amsterdam.
We had a very good table d’hote on board, at a moderate price, abundance of Rhine crabs, excellent grapes, and a variety of other fruits, which, as well as the most delicious bread I evertasted, we purchased at the different towns where we stopped. I had the comfort of being attended by an intelligent, animated fellow, who had been in the service of the immortal Nelson on board of one of the ships which he commanded, and afterwards with the English army in Egypt, who offered his services on board the boat at a very reasonable rate. The richness, novelty, and majesty of the scenery, kept me constantly on the roof of the cabin, from the early hour of starting till the hour of nine at night, when, for the reason stated, we always stopped at some town or village till morning. In these stoppages we entirely depended upon the variable velocity of the current, not to say a word of the caprice of our skipper, or the influence which the residence of any particular favourite or friend might have upon him; the consequence of which was, that we arrived at places to sup and sleep where we were not expected, and of course our patience was put to a little, but never a considerable trial. Within three or four miles of Coblentz, on our right in ascending the river, we passed a pyramidical mausoleum, erected to the memory of the French general Marceau, who distinguished himself at the battle of Mons and Savenai, and died of the wounds which he received at the battle of Altenkirchen in 1796.
At Bendorf, a romantic village on our left, upon a branch of the river, a terrible battle was fought between the French army, commanded by Gen. Hoche, and the Austrians, after the former had effected the passage I have before mentioned, from the white tower, which, after a tremendous slaughter on both sides, terminated in the retreat of the imperial troops. In this battle an extraordinary instance of prowess and enthusiasm occurred, which is said to have decided the fate of the day; the French had frequently attacked an Austrian redoubt, the possession of which was of great consequence to them, and had as often been repulsed with great carnage; at last a French general rode up to the granadiers commanded by Captain Gros, and exclaimed, “Soldiers, swear to me that you will make yourselves masters of that redoubt.” “We swear,” replied Gros, holding up his hand, and his soldiers doing the same: they returned to the attack with redoubled fury,and the havoc became dreadful: the French troops were upon the point of again giving way, when their leader had his right arm crushed by a grape shot, upon which, with a smile of triumph, he grasped his sabre with his left, rallied his men and carried the redoubt. As we turned a considerable meander of the river by Neuendorff, one of the grandest spectacles I almost ever contemplated opened upon me: the mighty rock of Ehrenbreitstein, formerly called the Gibraltar of the Rhine, with its dismantled batteries and ruined castles, rose with awful and unexampled majesty on the south; at its base was the palace formerly belonging to the Elector of Treves, and the town bearing the name of this wonderful fortification; and immediately opposite to it, as we advanced a little farther, the beautiful city of Coblentz appeared. Here we were obliged to be separated from our horse, on account of the Moselle, which discharges itself into the Rhine at this place, the mouth of which we crossed by the assistance of our boatmen’s poles. Over this river there is a handsome stone bridge of many arches, and formerly there was a bridge of boats from this city to Ehrenbreitstein, which has been most judiciously removed, and succeeded by one of the flying bridges before described, by which a more convenient communication is kept completely open, and the navigation is not impeded. Coblentz is a very ancient city; it was the seat of the Roman emperors, and of the kings of the Franks, and a favourite residence of the archbishops and electors of Treves, who, in ancient times of broil and peril, resided in the castle which crowns the majestic rock opposite to the city. Before the revolution there were three parish churches, two colleges, a church belonging to the Jesuits, four convents of monks, dominicans, carmelites, franciscans, and capuchins, and three nunneries. At that period the population of the inhabitants, of the garrison, and the vale of Ehrenbreitstein, was calculated at 13,000 souls; at present it is not supposed to exceed nine thousand. The city has many good and some handsome buildings, and it is further recommended by its supplies of excellent mines, pit-coal, wood, and lime. Its best square is the Clemenstadt; there are several handsome hotels, of which the ancienthotel, the vast rock which formerly protected it, and the antiquity of its buildings, cast a gloomy grandeur over the whole place, which never exhibited so much gaiety as in the winter of 1791, when the French princes and their followers were nobly entertained and protected here by the Elector, before they marched to Champagne, to experience those disasters which finally confirmed the overthrow of their devoted house.
Coblentz derives its name by not a little meander of etymology, from the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle at its base. Ausonius, one of the most celebrated of the Latin poets of the fourth century, wrote five hundred verses in commemoration of this river, which, compared with the majesty of the river into which it rolls and is lost, is scarcely worthy of such an honour: the view from its banks is also in an equal degree of comparative inferiority, and by the unceasing agitation of its confluence, it has the reputation of having alarmed the tender nerves of the river-fish, of which the inhabitants of this city are not so well supplied as the neighbouring towns.
One of the most beautiful objects in this place is the new palace, built to the south of the city, close to the Rhine, by that splendid and amiable prince, the Elector Clemont Vencelas; it is of brick stuccoed, to resemble stone, has a noble Ionic portico, and including its wings, extends one hundred and eighty yards. A further description of its exterior, as I have made a drawing of it, and moreover as it is now converted into an hospital, were useless. Its grand staircase, its apartments consisting of a chapel, an audience-hall, concert-room, library, cabinet, dining-room, besides an immense number of other rooms, excited the admiration of every visitor, by their magnitude, magnificence, or elegance. Its furniture, its mantle-pieces, its tapestry, and inlaid floors, all corresponded in taste and splendor with the rest of the building; now not a vestige of its consequence or original destination remains, but what its walls display. Most of the windows are broken, stuffed with hay, or further disfigured by having linen hanging out to dry from them; the area before the grand front, which was formed into an elegant promenade, is now broken, and itsgraceful plantation totally destroyed. A little way further to the southward, on the opposite side, under the impending rocks of Ehrenbreitstein, is the old palace, a sombre building, which the Elector Clement quitted almost entirely on account of its gloom, and the humidity of its situation.
The Elector of Treves excited the indignation of the French against him very early in the French revolution, by encouraging the expatriated French princes to reside and hold their counterrevolutionary councils at Coblentz. In September, 1794, General Jourdan, with his accustomed energy, compelled the Austrians to retreat to Hervé, and afterwards to Aix la Chapelle, when, supported by the main body of the army, the French attacked all the enemy’s posts from Ruremonde to Juliers: at this eventful period, General Clairfayt having occupied a strong position upon the Roer, resisted the French for some time, but their ardor and numbers at length compelled the Austrians to retire into Germany, leaving behind them ten thousand of their comrades, killed or taken prisoners, in the short space of three days; and soon afterwards a detachment of the French army, under the command of General Moreau, entered Coblentz as victors, Cologne being already in their possession, and Mainz, or Mayence, the only city in the possession of the allies on the left bank of the Rhine.
I was informed by some French officers who were in the boat with me, that the society in Coblentz was very elegant; that a number of families lived in splendor; and also, that Bonaparte had continued with some modifications the colleges, and most of the public institutions, which the Electors of Treves had at various times established in that city. The vast and celebrated monastery, called in German Karthaus, or La Chartreuse, situated on a high mountain, in the neighbourhood to the west of Coblentz, from which the countries of Treves, Mayence, Cologne, Darmstadt, d’Anspach, and Wied, may be seen, is converted into an observatory, and a place of very agreeable recreation.
Upon my return, in descending the Rhine, I had an opportunity of more closely seeing Ehrenbreitstein, which I was enabled to do from the following circumstance: the Rhine schuyt wasuncommonly crowded, and late in the evening we arrived at a hamlet on the right bank of the river to sleep: the house in which we were to pass the night was not able to furnish beds more than barely sufficient for the ladies on board, which at once determined a French officer, one of the party, who had not placed his head upon a pillow for three preceding nights, and who was a wretched invalid, apparently in the last stage of a decline, to hunt amongst the cottagers for a fiddler, to whose miserable sounds this epitome of his nation, with several other officers and petty German merchants, danced till the dawn of day,pour passer le temps, and the boat was ready to proceed. Having found by moon-light a nook in a peasant’s nest, in the most romantic situation under heaven, I lay down, and never awoke till an hour after the boat had departed, in which dilemma I was obliged to hire a punt with two paddles, and by the assistance of a couple of sturdy peasants overtook the passage-boat, which lay off Coblentz, during which I visited Ehrenbreitstein. At its base there is a pretty town and an excellent hotel; opposite to the palace is a walk of limes, close to which was moored the electoral state yacht, or barge, in shape and size resembling our Lord Mayor’s, but not quite so gaudy. The ascent to this stupendous rock, which is eight hundred feet in a perpendicular line above the level of the river, is by a very narrow, steep, and winding path: the noble fortification on its sides, and the castles, arsenals, barracks, and batteries upon its summit, from whence the eye can behold the mountains of Lorraine, the meanders of the Rhine, and the countries through which it flows to a vast distance, and from which the beholder might almost think he could step into the clouds, are all roofless and dismantled. The citadel was erected by the order of the Prince Bishop Herman Hillinus, in the 12th century, upon the ruins of an ancient Roman building.
In the centre of the square, or parade upon the top, was formerly mounted the celebrated cannon, called “the Griffon,” as well known to the Germans as that called “Queen Anne’s pocket-piece” is to the English. The former merits the national pride which it has excited. It was cast at Francfort by the order of theElector, Richard Greifenklau, weighed thirty thousand pounds, and was capable of projecting a ball of one hundred and eighty pounds, to a distance of sixteen miles. Close to the touch-hole there was the following inscription: “Vogel Grief heis ich, meinem gnädigen herrn von Trier dien ich, wo er mich heist gewanten, da will ich Thoren und mauren Zerspalten. Simon gos mich, 1528.” In English—“Griffon is my name, I serve my gracious master of Treves, I shatter gates and walls, whenever he commands me to exert my force. Simon cast me, 1528.” This rock was supplied with water from a well 280 feet deep, which occupied three years in digging, in the year 1481, and has a subterranean communication with Coblentz, dug out of the solid rock: the fortress was justly deemed, when properly garrisoned, impregnable. In the time of the Swedish war, the attacks of eighty thousand French troops on the southern side of it, and of forty thousand on the northern, could make no impression upon it; however, still maintaining its invulnerable character, it was destined to bend to a foe, before which all local advantage is useless, and all enterprise unavailing: after bravely sustaining a blockade for a whole year, by the troops of the French republic, the garrison having endured with the greatest fortitude almost every description of privation and misery, were obliged to surrender tofamine, and capitulated on the 28th January, 1799; soon after which the French covered this mighty rock with the ruins of those wonderful fortifications, which had employed the skill of the ablest engineer to complete, and which, but for the want of food, would have defied the force of her assailing enemy to the end of time. The thal, or valley below, is justly celebrated for its fertility and romantic beauty.
Soon after our departure from Coblentz, we passed the island of Obewerth; and a little further on, on our left, the disemboguement of the river Lahn, which flows between two ancient and picturesque towns, called the Upper and Lower Lahnsteins, where the Rhine forms a considerable curve, and expands into the resemblance of a placid lake, adorned with two vast mountains, one crowned with a hoary watch tower, and the base of the other halfencircled by a village, and the whole adorned by the captivating combinations of forest scenery, rich meadows, and hanging vineyards and orchards, amidst which, half embosomed in their foliage, the peasant’s peaceful dwelling every now and then gladdened the eye. This lovely view was soon exchanged for one of gloomy magnificence; before we reached Boppart, we entered a melancholy defile of barren and rugged rocks, rising perpendicularly from the river to an immense height, and throwing a shade and horror over the whole scene; here all was silent, and no traces of man were to be found but in a few dispersed fishermen’s huts, and crucifixes. Fear and superstition, “when the day has gone down, and the stars are few,” have long filled every cave with banditti, and every solitary recess with apparitions.
In the course of my passage I frequently, when the boat came very near the land, sprung on shore with two or three other passengers, and varied the scene by walking along the banks for a mile or two, and during these excursions had frequently an opportunity of admiring the astonishing activity and genius of the French, who have, since they became masters of the left bank of the Rhine, nearly finished one of the finest roads in the world, extending from Mayence to Cologne, in the course of which they have cut through many rocks impending over the river, and triumphed over some of the most formidable obstacles Nature could present to the achievement of so wonderful a design. This magnificent undertaking, worthy of Rome in the most shining periods of her history, was executed by the French troops, who, under the direction of able engineers, preferred leaving these monuments of indefatigable toil and elevated enterprize, to passing their time, during the cessation of arms, in towns and barracks, in a state of indolence and inutility.
The sombre spires of Boppart, surrounded by its black wall and towers, presented a melancholy appearance to the eye, relieved by the rich foliage of the trees in its vicinity, and the mountains behind it irregularly intersected with terraces covered with vines to their very summits. The antiquity of this city is very great; it was one of the fifty places of defence erected on the banksof the Rhine by Drusus Germanicus, and in the middle ages was an imperial city.
Not far from Boppart we saw, on the right bank of the river, a procession of nuns and friars returning to a convent, the belfry of which just peeped above a noble avenue of walnut-trees; they were singing, and their voices increased the solemn effect of the surrounding scenery. We put up for the night at a little village, amid mountains half covered with vineyards, tufted with forests, and chequered with convents and ruined castles. The evening was stormy, and a full moon occasionally brightened the scene: frequently we were enveloped in solemn gloom,
When the broken arches are as black as night,And each shafted Oriel glimmers white,When the cold light’s uncertain show’r,Streams on the ruin’d central tow’r.Lay of the last Minstrel.
When the broken arches are as black as night,And each shafted Oriel glimmers white,When the cold light’s uncertain show’r,Streams on the ruin’d central tow’r.Lay of the last Minstrel.
When the broken arches are as black as night,And each shafted Oriel glimmers white,When the cold light’s uncertain show’r,Streams on the ruin’d central tow’r.Lay of the last Minstrel.
When the broken arches are as black as night,
And each shafted Oriel glimmers white,
When the cold light’s uncertain show’r,
Streams on the ruin’d central tow’r.
Lay of the last Minstrel.