Gratifying was it to have a young Italian girl at this Adelsberg hostelry come out from the crowd,—not one of whom seemed to speak English or French,—speak perfect English to us, and translate our wants to the landlord. And gratifying was it to our national pride to see what alacrity the announcement that we were Americans put into his step, and the speed of his preparations; for in less than half an hour we had been provided with an excellent apartment, and were sitting at a little supper table at one end of the salle à manger, enjoying tea, chops, and other creature comforts. At the same time, a magician was performing in the room to an audience of fifty or sixty, whose costume, conversation, and manners were to us the most interesting part of it. We also found ourselves to be somewhat of a curiosity to the auditors, while the young Italian who could converse with us in our own tongue, having formerly been lady's maid in an English family, found herself quite distinguished, on account of her accomplishment, among her friends, who crowded around her, and, as we afterwards learned, plied her with innumerable questions about the Americans and their distant country.
Being the only foreigners in the place desirous of visiting the cave the next morning, we were obliged to pay the same expense that would have been required of a party of a dozen. The cave is the property of the government, and there is a regular tariff of charges, according to the grade of illumination,—that is, the number of candles used in displaying the halls and grottos; for a goodly quantity are required to even partially display its wonders. The grand illumination, "utterly regardless," we declared against; so also did we the cheap third and fourth rate, but decided upon the second, involving an expense of about twelve dollars and a half, and six guides.
Our former experiences in caves, mines, ruins, and grottos have always necessitated a change of costume, a donning of rubber coats, overalls, old hats, or overshoes. Consequently we were a little incredulous at the assertion that, with the exception of tolerably stout shoes, nothing more than an ordinary costume was necessary. We entered this wonderful cavern directly from the road, walking into it as into an arched excavation in a hill-side. Four of our six guides had preceded us, and kept about a quarter of an hour in advance, with their satchels of candles and torches, to illuminate the great halls and chambers on our approach; while the other two, one of whom, to our joy, spoke French, accompanied us with torches, to guide us, and point out the curiosities and wonders of the place. The cavern is miles in extent. And let not the reader imagine any damp, dirty hole in the earth, with muddy soil and dripping roof, or a squeezing through of narrow, dangerous passages, clambering over obstacles, or anything of the kind; for, with the exception of the damp sand of a shallow stream, for twenty yards near the very entrance, the walking was as dry and free from absolute discomforts as a city street.
Three hours' walk through the bowels of the earth revealed to us that there were as wondrous beauties below as above the earth; for we passed through great natural Gothic passages, almost as natural as if shaped by the builder's hands, forests and clusters of columns glittering with fantastic ornament. We emerged into a great dome-like apartment, big enough to set Boston State House down in its centre, and leave room to spare. This our guides had illumined with the candles placed in every direction, and the effect upon the glittering stalactites and stalagmites, frosted as they were with flashing crystals, was as if we stood in a vast hall of diamonds, sparkling around in every direction.
On we went, amid pillars, arches, and spires. Here was a great dome, one hundred and sixty-five feet high, the guides told us, spangled, as far up as we could see, with a perfect blaze of sparkling particles, reflecting back the light of the numerous candles, like a roof crusted with gems. Another great hall was shaped like a huge theatre. Right through the centre, where should be the parquet, rushed a swift, silent, black river—the Poick; a natural stone bridge formed the orchestra; beyond it, a great platform of rock, the stage; two semicircular ledges of rock opposite were the two rows of dress circle and boxes; only this great theatre was double, yes, treble the size of a real one.
Our guides had placed a double row of lights over the orchestral bridge, which were reflected on the black stream beneath. Another row represented the stage lights. Two more rows ran round stone balconies where we stood, while the illusion is heightened by an extemporized chandelier, made from hogshead hoops, filled with rows of candles, and swung out by means of a wooden crane into the centre.
The effect was magnificent and indescribable.
Another great hall was designated "Mount Calvary," and was a succession of gradual ascents, past stalactite columns, by a winding pathway, to a summit where were three formations of the rock, which, by an effort of the imagination, might represent the group at our Saviour's crucifixion. This magnificent hall, like the others, blazed with sparkling particles, was rich in white, marble-like columns, clustered pillars, wondrous arches, and semi-transparent sheets of cream-colored rock. Another hall, when lighted, seemed a realization of those "fairy grottos," "abode of elves," or "home of the sea-nymphs," which we see represented upon the stage of the theatre; for it was a wilderness of fret-work, pretty arches, open, lace-work sort of rock screens, slender spires, alabaster-like pillars, and all glittering and flashing with the alum-like, crystal-sparkling particles of the formation which is found in these caverns.
Passing from hall to hall, we encounter numerous curious and astonishingly natural formations. There were statues, petrified waterfalls, a torrent in full career turned into alabaster; towers, one the leaning tower of Pisa, fifteen feet high, a very good representation; columns as transparent as an alabaster vase; ruined castles, thirty feet high, with battlements and turrets; a splendid pulpit, grand throne, a butcher's shop with joints hanging from its beams; and a prison with its grated window, all in white stone. Here we came to great white curtains of rock, a dozen yards high and half that width, no thicker than the hand, which when struck with a wooden mallet bounded like a cathedral bell; then we came to a place like the sea-beach, where it seemed as if the slow in-coming waves, as they washed upon the sands, had felt the stony touch that had transformed all—for there were the little rippling waves in solid alabaster, caught in their retreat, with all the little eddies and foam-whirls as they were sliding back to the surf that sent them in, and held solid and immovable. Upon one huge crag of rock sat quite a shapely eagle, and from another drooped a huge flag in snowy folds, and beneath it, rising as if to grasp it, reached up a Titanic hand; then came a tall palm tree, next a broom of stone big enough for a giant; a lion's head looking over a jutting crag, and yew trees by the path side, besides many other objects, some most wonderfully natural in appearance, and others requiring the exercise of a lively imagination to see the representation.
The last grand apartment in this wonderful cave was the state ball-room, a beautiful circular-formed apartment, with its centre clear and unobstructed, affording ample space for dancers, who use it once a year, on Whit-Sunday, when a grand ball, with full orchestra, is given there. This apartment contains a natural formation for the orchestra, an elegant rocky seat as a throne, and tiers of seats, rows of sparkling columns about its sides, and elegant rocky fret-work far above. The effect of the illumination here, as in other apartments, was dazzlingly beautiful.