Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II — John Shaqi
Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. IIGleig, G. R. (George Robert)
History
Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary, Visited in 1837. Vol. II
Gleig, G. R. (George Robert)
Austria -- Description and travel; Bohemia (Czech Republic) -- Description and travel; Germany -- Description and travel
We had been correctly warned as to the probable duration of the storm.
The rain, which fell in occasional showers when we first set out, soon
ceased entirely, and we had once more a clear and cloudless sky, with a
nice cool breeze just sufficiently powerful to refresh without
incommoding us. Our walk, likewise, was very interesting; for,
independently of the extreme beauty of the scene,--hills and dales,
forests and cultivated fields, deep glens and swelling table-lands,--we
passed over ground which had witnessed some sharp fighting during the
movements of the French army upon Dresden. The Allies, it appears,
manoeuvred well in this quarter; for, by showing numerous skeletons
of corps, they led Napoleon to imagine that a large army of Austrians,
Russians, and Prussians was here; and, while he watched them carefully,
they had well-nigh cut him off from his line of retreat. During these
demonstrations on both sides, foraging parties had been sent out from
Gabel, to sweep the neighbouring villages. These our guide had seen,
and one of them he followed so as to become eye-witness to an affair
which it had near a hamlet which we passed. He described the scattering
fire of the jagers, and the occasional dashes of the hussars, with
great animation, though, according to his showing, this, like other
rencounters of the sort, cost more powder than lives.
Having accompanied us at least two German miles,--that is, full ten
miles according to our English mode of computing distances,--the
landlord of the Hernhause stopped short, and prepared to take his
leave. We shook hands warmly, and I thought I heard his voice quiver
when, in return for a cast of flies, he thanked me. Nor must I permit
it to be believed, that the regrets were all on his side. I do not know
when my feelings have been more engaged among strangers, than by the
unaffected kindness of the people of Gabel,--a kindness on which we had
no right to calculate, however much we might be justified in looking
for civility in return for our money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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