CHAPTER VII.

CHANGE FOR A NAPOLEON.

Master Humphreys. The comely maid! Such term

not half the sum

Of her rich beauty gives! Were rule to go

By loveliness, I know not in the court

Or city, lady might not fitly serve

That lady serving maid.-The Love Chase.

locks by means of which barges, boats, or rafts of timber, may be raised or lowered as required.

It was at one of these that the boat had a narrow

52

A DANGEROUS POSITION.

escape. The Professor had lost his hat in the water, and we, in our anxiety to regain it, were not conscious of our approach to the weir; fortunately, the Captain, who was steering, discovered our position, though only in time to spring to the bank and hold on by one of the rudder strings while the boat swung round with her bow half over the top of the waterfall. It was hard work even then to prevent her from being carried down stream, for there was a great body of water rushing over the weir.

About this time our small stock of linen running rather short, the Captain undertook the office of blanchisseuse; the jerseys, &c., were washed in very little time-and dried in still less, for it was so intensely hot, that the very hills seemed as if they could not breathe; in fact, we preferred bathing in our clothes to-day, that they might keep us cool by evaporation afterwards.

Attempts were made to teach the Doctor to swim, but they proved utterly futile; he positively will not float.

The banks of the river about these parts are very fine, being quite equal and very similar to the Neckar above Heidelberg, though on a larger scale. Where they do not rise immediately from

the water's edge in rocky precipices, the adjacent hills, covered with vines, slope down towards the river, being met at the bottom by productive meadows, studded with farmhouses, the white fronts and quaint roofs of which add not a little to the cheerfulness of the scene. The tow-path also, along the banks, is kept in such beautiful order that you might almost fancy yourself in private grounds.

Towards evening we approached Baume, a tolerable village near the river, and famous for its pâtés and fish, which last we can answer for as deserving notice, for we had capital sport, baiting the hook with a grasshopper at least double the size of those in England. We stopped short of Baume, however, and were conducted by a very civil and complimentary old Abbé to an auberge, one of the most curious we had hitherto come across. We were compelled to take our supper in a double-bedded room which was already occupied, but afterwards were fain to retire to the kitchen to smoke our pipes. The Captain and Doctor slept on the staircase, and the Professor in a four-bedded room which was well filled with men and children.

In the morning, on going to the boat, we found that our old friend the Abbé had informed the inhabitants of Baume of our arrival, for many of

54

CURIOUS CUSTOMS.

them had come down to see these wonderful men and their curious barquette.* They seemed somewhat amused as well as surprised at our primitive mode of performing the ablutionary part of our toilette; for we invariably left our rooms, or wherever we had slept, towel in hand, and made for the nearest and most convenient spot for a plunge into the river. This was the more necessary, as frequently there was no apparatus provided for washing; or if on our stopping at any place of more than ordinary pretension there was a towel and a basin in our room, we could rarely find more water than would have left us a wine glass full each. On this point the Professor, who knows a good deal of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of the interior of France, informed us that the usual mode of washing among the peasants is this:

On Sundays, or on an average once a week, they will fill their mouths with cold water, and keeping it there for some time (to avoid, as he supposes, any unnecessary waste of fuel in warming the water), throw the head back and allow the water to trickle

* Our craft was designated by numerous different names, such as bateau, barque, canot, batelotte, chaloupe, nacelle, &c.; and afterwards in Germany, as Boot, Bootchen, Schiff, Schifflein, &c.

over the face, which is then rubbed with the bare hand till the fluid has evaporated. The process of combing the hair he supposes to take place about once a month. Now it was generally a rule of ours to conform to the customs of the country we were passing through, but this fashion being somewhat beyond us, we resorted to the method above-mentioned of taking an early dip.

This day we still continued to find the same sort of bold scenery along the banks, which is frequently and agreeably relieved by the sight of numerous and elegant suspension bridges that span the river. So slight are the suspension chains, that one wonders how they can sustain the weight of the bridge, much less anything passing over it. Five miles from Baume a mass of naked rock five hundred feet high, of the most picturesque form, overhangs the road, which has barely room to pass between it and the river.

The charge at our halting-place to-day would supply ample materiel for some of the recent correspondents of the Times on hotel charges. We had a dinner of five courses, beginning with soup and ending with salad, two bottles of wine, one of beer, curaçoa after dinner, beds, and breakfast for three, and another bottle of wine to take with us,