On his arrival in Paris he experienced only a repetition of his former distress; his name was unknown, or rather his earlier works had failed to attract public favour, for two of his symphonies, which had been performed in 1838 and 1839, had been successful. He was on the very verge of ruin, when fortunately meeting M. Chevalier, one of his former brethren, that gentleman procured the performance of "the Desert," at the Conservatoire. The effect was instantaneous, and David saw his long years of care and toil amply rewarded. His composition met with equal success in England. But David, the grateful disciple of Beethoven, declared that he could not rest until he likewise succeeded in obtaining the suffrages of the musical world in Germany. He therefore travelled through that country, making friends wherever he went by the modesty and unaffectedness of his disposition, and acquiring an increase of reputation by the performance of his works. It cannot be denied that the originality of the idea which forms the groundwork of his symphonic ode, "the Desert," united with the exaggerated reports in circulation respecting his life, took the public by surprise; and the extraordinary success of the work was as much owing to the capricious favour of fashion as to its intrinsic merits. But although we cannot go so far as, with some of his enthusiastic biographers, to class "the Desert" with the masterpieces of Beethoven and his compeers, it is a most meritorious composition, and we believe that the modest artist himself would be among the first to decline the lofty position assigned to him by his vehement but somewhat injudicious admirers. OUDENARDE. THE kingdom of Belgium is rich in historical associations peculiarly interesting to an Englishman, as indicative of the love of civil liberty. Here the remains of the middle ages denote a people deeply impressed with religious feeling, and enthusiastically attached to freedom. As the traveller strolls, travelling by easy stages, he finds, at a short distance from each other, a great number of cities, whose brave and somewhat turbulent inhabitants have played no mean part in history, whilst their picturesque manners and customs afford a grateful and rich source of events for the novelist. Here it is not the splendid palace, that too often reveals the weakness of the real sinews of the state, but the citizens which command our admiration; the holy edifice erected by the people to the worship of God, in all the splendour of Gothic architecture, and the people's own house, in which their bluff magistrates dispensed the laws and frequently bade defiance to the sovereign, VOL. II. R in the proud consciousness of their own authority, are interesting to the traveller as monuments of a state of things which exists no longer, and which will probably return no more. Among the celebrated municipal houses which speak so eloquently for the taste and genius both of the architect who planned them and the people who caused them to be erected, we beg to direct the attention of the reader to that of the little city of Oudenarde, or, more properly, Oudenaarden, called by the French Audenarde, the capital of one of the six political divisions of the Belgian province of East Flanders. It is built in the same characteristic Gothic style which is displayed in those chef-d'œuvres of civil architecture, the Hôtels d' Ville of Brussels and Louvain. The city of Oudenarde, which is likewise a fortress, is situated between Ghent and Tournay, about fifteen miles from the former city. It has long been celebrated for its manufactures, which are spoken of with great commendation in works of the seventeenth century. It contains about 5,500 inhabitants. The city is of great antiquity, although antiquarians are not agreed as to the time of its foundation. It would seem to have been occupied by the Romans, as many Roman coins, medals, and statues have, from time to time, been found here. Gramaie, and other historians, however, pretend that the city owes its origin to a fortress built by the Huns on the Schelde, in the year 411; which assertion, like many other antiquarian hypotheses, would be somewhat difficult of proof. Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, enclosed the place, and conferred many privileges on its inhabitants; and from the favour of this prince may be dated the origin of the prosperity of Oudenarde. In Oudenarde were born Margaret of Parma, Drusius, and the painter, Adrian Brauwer. THE OATH OF THE THREE SWISS. THE Lake of the Four Cantons, or in the language of the inhabitants, the Vierwaldstätter See, abounds in picturesque and sublime scenery. The lofty mountains, the Righi and Pilatus, tower above the iron-bound shores that confine the waters at the extremity of the lake near Fluellen. Almost every spot of ground is consecrated to the great deeds of Swiss history, which poetry has loved to embellish. As you descend from the Righi, after enjoying the unrivalled panorama from its summit you pass through the Hohle Gasse, or hollow lane of Schiller, in which an arrow from the bow of William Tell ended the life of the tyrannic landvogt Gessler. As THE OATH OF THE THREE SWISS. 63 you wind round the lake the romantic little building called Tell's Chapel meets the eye; you land on the narrow platform, whence the sturdy archer, recovering his own liberty by a manly spring from Gessler's bark, left the frail vessel to the mercy of the raging Foehmvind. Arrived at the extremity of the lake, you land at Fluellen, and pursuing your way to Altorf, a large painting represents Tell, on the very spot where the event occurred, in the act of shooting the apple from the head of his son. A roaring mountain-stream, the Schaechen, whose waters when swollen by the rains dash down the declivities with impetuous force, attracts the attention of the traveller. Tell could die no common death; and the popular tale in his native country is, that he perished in this stream, in attempting to rescue a boy who was in danger of drowning. Opposite to the above-mentioned Chapel of Tell is the Ruettli, a solitary place in the wood, celebrated for the oath there taken by the three heroes of Swiss liberty, Stauffacher, Walter Fuerst, and Melchthal. The historian Tschudi thus relates this important event. It happened in 1307 that there lived a pious countryman in Unterwalden, by name Henry Melchthal, a wise, honourable man, in good circumstances, well esteemed by the country people, and constantly anxious that the Swiss should remain within the liberties of the land, and not suffer a separation from the empire. Therefore Beringer of Landenberg, who was landvogt in all Unterwalden, was ill-disposed towards him. This Melchthal had fine oxen, and for some small offence which his son Arnold is said to have committed against him, the landvogt sent a servant who should seize his finest pair of oxen, and if the old Melchthal should say anything against it, he should tell him that the landvogt was of opinion that the peasants could draw the plough themselves. The servant did as his master commanded him, and as he unyoked the oxen, the countryman's son, Arnold, became enraged, and with a stick struck the landvogt's servant sharply on the hand, so that he broke one of his fingers. After this deed Arnold fled out of the country to Uri, whither also another man had fled for concealment, by name Conrad Baumgarten,* who had slain the landvogt Wolfenschiessen for having attempted to dishonour his wife. The servant whom Arnold had struck complained to his master. Then the landvogt caused the old father's eyes to be put out. At this tyrannical action the peopl felt great indignation. Also when Arnold knew what had happened to his piou: ather, he complained in secret of his wrongs to trustworthy persons of Uri, and hoped that the day would once come to revenge his father's injuries. At the same time Gessler, landvogt in Uri and Schwytz, exercised there no less oppression, and had a fortress built in Uri, that he and the other landvogts after him might dwell there more securely, if a rebellion should break out, and that the land might remain in greater fear and * See Vol. I. p. 9, the plate representing Tell saving Baumgarten. |