ing, not at this sword, but various curiosities in this shop. Two old bronze statues of Voltaire and Rosseau are kept here, and are said to be excellent likenesses. Some of our company bought a quantity of old silver ware to carry to the United States; but between this place and that there are too many custom houses to risk much in such matters. We return to Lausanne to-day, and then we shall start for Basle.

23

FRIEND S

LETTER XXVI.

BASLE, AUGUST 15, 1850.

THE most economical and pleasant mode of travelling through Switzerland is by private carriage, where there is a company of four, or more. You command your time; you can stop when and where you please; you can turn aside to visit a ruin, or pause awhile in a city or town, without being rated soundly by the impudent drivers of the diligence. At Lausanne we engaged a guide to go with us to Basle, agreeing to pay him five francs a day, and his fare back to L.; and a right clever fellow was Louis. I think he has another name, but know not what it is. He will be found, if living, at the Hotel Faucon, in Lausanne. Louis spoke good American, and then he was fluent in French and German. He had travelled a year with an American family from New York, and was well acquainted with Yankee peculiarities. He took the whole care of our baggage, and our arrangements at the various hotels; so

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that for the first, and probably the last time, we tasted the luxury of a live lord with his servants at his beck. Our first business was to procure a team to convey us to Basle, distant one hundred and thirty miles, though the spunging voiturin averred it to be one hundred and fifty. We took Louis, and went to find a good voiture in which to make our journey. The owner said he would send us through for twenty francs per day, and six francs for the driver. I counselled the company not to close the bargain until we had consulted our landlord, who was au fait in such matters. I went to our hotel and informed the landlord of the price charged, and asked if it was the usual rate? "0," said he, "did he say for one horse, or two?" Of course, ," said I, "we are to have two horses, as it is a double carriage." "Yah, yah," said the good natured German, “but did he say he should charge twenty francs a day for the other horse, mynheer?" "Why, no," said I; "of course, he intended to put us through for twenty francs per day, for the team." "For one horse, mynheer, and then he will charge you twenty francs for the other!" That was out-yankeeing a Yankee; and I ran back to the stable, where our company were looking at a carriage, and told Louis to put this question to the voiturin, "Do you charge twenty francs for both your horses, or for one alone?" My companions laughed at the idea as absurd; but there were some long faces when Louis informed us that it would be forty francs per day, and the bonus of six to the cocher. This was a new feature in the business of horse letting! I had

heard of the Irish gentleman, who said he would buy one spur, and make one side of his nag gallop, and the other side would have to keep up, but I had not before seen the man who let one horse to do the work, and sent another to bear him company, charging for the companionship! I told the fellow that he need not send the second horse; he could send one, and put us through for twenty francs per day; but that would not do. I told the company to leave him, for our landlord had informed me of another mode of conveyance. A carriage had arrived the night before with a family from Zurich, and was to return the day following, and the owner would be glad to take us to Basle, which would be not far out of his course. We struck a bargain with the cocher for twenty francs per day for both horses, and six francs bonus, he to eat his own team and himself, and take Louis as an interpreter.

We started on the morning following our bargain, with the whole arrangement and agreement written out in full by our kind host; we were to dine the first day at Payerne, and sleep at Friburg, and so on; all was specified throughout our journey. We made rather a long pause at our first stopping place, as one of our carriage wheels wanted a spoke. Louis informed us that a great curiosity was to be seen here; and so, after dinner, (which, by the way, was very good, inasmuch as we had a pudding made of our old acquaintance, Indian corn meal,) we started to see it. We went to the church, an old and antiquated building, and lo, hanging upon the wall of the church were

Some pieces of wood strapped

the ruins of an old saddle! with iron; the leather, or whatever covered it, all gone. Was it the saddle which Alexander strapped to the back of Bucephalus? Or that upon which Cæsar crossed the Rubicon? Or that which pressed the bones of Don Quixote's Rosinante? Louis said it belonged to Bertha, Queen of Burgundy; and that Bertha lies buried in this church. But who she was, or when she lived, or how and when she died, we could not tell; our guide could not tell. When I return, I shall endeavor to hunt up the history of the queen who rode on a gentleman's saddle, and, it is said, spun flax as she rode.

The country which we passed from Lausanne to Friburg reminded us of home more strongly than any place which we have yet seen. Unlike England, you are here constantly passing neat farm houses, and the soil seems to rejoice in the presence of its tiller. Tobacco is seen grow

ing here, and now and then a patch of Indian corn, as an experiment. Our road was a fine, macadamized way, and smooth as a floor. We travelled through a fine valley for nearly the whole day, densely populated and prosperous. I had read much of Swiss cottages, and my beau ideal of a country residence was such a cottage. But much of the poetry of this, as of other matters, disappeared by a nearer approach.

"T is distance lends enchantment to the view."

You will sometimes see a cottage by itself, but seldom.