About an hour had elapsed, when we heard a man whistle at a short distance. It struck us that this must be the guard, and if he saw us, we were certain that he would suspect that we came at least to pick the grapes, as they were almost ripe; which is a penal offence in this country. Not many seconds afterwards we heard the report of a musket, and the small shot rattled through the vines close to our heads. We inferred that the fellow had taken this summary mode of arresting us; but in a moment a huge fox, with dogs in chase, passed close by, with the man shouting at a small distance behind, who, fortunately, did not follow the dogs in a direct line, or he would have come right upon us. How to act we could not devise. To quit the vineyard would have been extremely dangerous, and after a short debate we thought it most prudent to remain where we were. At about ten we were again greatly alarmed by the sound of voices that were approaching us rapidly. We lay close down on our faces, with no hopes of escaping from being seen, the voices still drawing nearer. In a short time we found they were at a stand, but close to us. I lifted up my head to peep through the vines, and saw the legs and thighs of two men close to me, the skirts of their greatcoats almost touching where we were; but their backs were turned, and they were moving on in an opposite direction: in a few minutes we lost sight of them altogether. I proposed to move to some other place, as we had been in constant alarm since we chose the spot where we then were; and I was of opinion that it was near a pathway. We accordingly crept along to another spot, but had been scarcely an hour there when we again heard a rustling amongst the vines. Each of us, much disconcerted, lifted up his head, and looked towards the place whence we heard the noise; we observed a woman with an infant in her arms, leading a little girl about seven years old, and coming directly upon us. The woman could not see us at first, but the child did, her little head being considerably under the branches. She immediately screamed, and seized the woman by the hands; upon which I stood up, and accosted her in German. She was dressed in the country garb, appeared much confused, and made no reply, but proceeded onwards, and we agreed to quit the vineyard before she could get to the village to give an account of this occurrence. In a few minutes we were upon the high-road. At that moment there were only two women on it, and they seemed to be coming towards us. We advanced very deliberately. I had studied German a little in Bitche, and found it now of material service, it being the language spoken in Alsace. I asked them what distance we were from the Rhine. “Three hours” they replied. We parted, and continued our route, eagerly wishing to find some place of concealment.
After a very short time we discerned a man advancing towards us. To our great annoyance, he stopped and surveyed us over and over again with apparent astonishment. We ought not to have been surprised at this, for, in spite of every effort to avoid it, we were covered with mud, and must have presented a woeful, or at least a very singular spectacle. Batley was hardly able to crawl along, on account of his feet. We continued our route, and we observed the man turn again and again to look at us; and, without actually making out what we were, we had no doubt that he took us for “no better than we should be.”
We now discovered a shrubbery, where we were soon snug and well concealed. It was one of the best hiding-places I was ever in, although it was close to the road. It was now about four o’clock, and we were not far from the Rhine. Under these favourable circumstances we hoped to be able to cross it that night at least. Our conversation now turned upon the difficulty of getting a boat, and the danger of approaching a house on the French side. Our provisions were nearly exhausted. However, we were sanguine of success, and anxiously wished for night, that we might make our experiment.
The anxious hour arrived, and we set forward with great spirit—not, however, forgetting to observe every necessary precaution. As this part of the Rhine was infested with smugglers, it was natural to conclude that there must also be a great number of custom-house officers, and we were obliged to be most vigilant and circumspect—need I say that the Étaples affair was vivid in my memory?
About eleven we made the circuit of a large town,[26] and at midnight, to our unspeakable joy, we descried the long-wished-for river, with its broad expanse shining like a mirror, and reflecting the heavens in a mirror-like way. We were soon on its banks. We rested for a few minutes, to take breath and to make our observations. There was an excellent wood hard by, and we resolved to retreat into it for concealment, in case we should not be able to get a boat that night; and, in the meantime, we agreed to proceed for about an hour in a northerly direction: which course we commenced, prying into every little creek and nook of the river. The morning being starlight, beautiful, and serene, we could hear the cocks crowing and dogs barking on the German side. This splendid river flowed before us, about a mile in breadth, with not an island to impede the view, which is not the case on all parts of the Rhine. My God! how we longed to be conveyed across! This anxiety prevented our fully enjoying the delightful prospect before us: it appeared to be a terrestrial paradise. We continued nearly an hour admiring and advancing, when the Great Ruler of all human affairs, whose Providence had so much favoured us throughout this attempt to escape, gave to our view a boat made fast with a chain to a stake driven into the bank, close to a heap of wood, which I supposed she was to have been loaded with at daylight. We were all struck with the secret impulse which had directed us to this very spot; and from that moment I felt an inward support and conviction that I should now succeed. On examining further, we found the chain of it locked. The doctor and myself got hold of the stake, and with little difficulty drew it out of the bank. This security of a chain and lock upon a movable stake made me observe that it was like “the lock upon leather which made the Irishman’s knife laugh.” Three of our party being from the Green Isle, the remark caused a general burst of merriment. Mr. Hewson, an expert sailor, and myself, soon constructed a pair of oars, or paddles, out of a couple of pieces of the wood. We then embarked our two comrades, whom we placed at the bottom of our little boat; and in about twenty minutes we were safely landed on the opposite side, having drifted nearly a mile and a half with the rapidity of the flood. We drove the stake in the ground, that the owners of the boat might find her at daylight, and proceeded into the country as fast as possible. We would have left money for the owner of the boat for the trouble we had caused him, though we were most woefully provided with that necessary of life; but it was obvious that there could be no certainty, and even little probability, of its falling into the right hands.
At daybreak of the 19th it became excessively thick and foggy: poor Batley was almost knocked up, the doctor was very much fatigued, and ourselves rather weary. We discovered a village on the river Merg, and after surveying it strictly, we agreed to enter it and to go to the first public-house we should see, for the purpose of obtaining refreshments and putting ourselves into as decent order as we could, not only for the sake of comfort, but in order to prevent our appearing as objects of suspicion. I calculated that we might very well pass ourselves off as Frenchmen; and from the knowledge I had of the German small villages, I was not in the least apprehensive of danger. This was the sixth day, including Wednesday, that we had passed without rest, and five of them under the open canopy of heaven, exposed to the elements, without having even once approached the dwelling of any human being. They who are clothed in purple, and fare sumptuously every day, can form no idea of what man endures, unfed, uncomforted, unhoused, and even unkennelled.
CHAPTER XIV
Refreshments at a village inn—The town of Rastadt—A civil traveller—Good accommodation—Baden—Awkward rencontre with a royal party—An alarm about passports—A genteel inn dangerous to fugitive travellers—The advantages of a drunken landlord—The town of Hornberg—To Kriemhieldsach, after passing the Black Forest—Banditti—The murder of a French general—A German inn and a rustic dance—The town of Tütlingen—A concealment of eight days—Vain attempts to smuggle passports—Progress of our journey—Crossing the Iller—Leaving Würtemberg and entering Bavaria—The progress of our flight—Kaufbeuern—An inquisitive landlord and frightened guests.
“Come what come may,” we were out of hated France, and our pulses beat with joy that the glorious river intervened between us and the land of our bondage and sufferings. “Flow on, thou shining river,” I repeated from the song of Erin’s modern poet, “flow on; for neither French gendarmes, French spies, nor French laws can reach us across thy broad and noble expanse of flowing waters. Here French chains cannot corrode the body, nor can French despotism and tyranny prostrate the spirit, and eat, like the canker-worm, into the heart.” Such were our reflections as we left the banks of this river of salvation and proceeded to the neighbouring village.
It was about seven in the morning that we entered into a tavern—if so it could be called. A servant-maid and child were the only people up. We gave ourselves out as French travellers from Prussia going into France, and who wanted their breakfast.