The professor finished his brief lecture, and the party spent the rest of the day in wandering about the garden, and in watching the flow of the mighty river, as it tumbled over the precipice. The next day was Sunday, and the excursionists attended church at the town three miles distant. On Monday morning the tourists crossed the bridge, and hastened to the garden of the Castle of Laufen, where were platforms, stagings and kiosks, for the convenience of visitors, which afford the best views of the cataract. One of these balconies projects out over the fall, and the party gathered on this, and beclouded with mist and spray, gazed at the wild rush of waters. Two rocks on the precipice separate the cataract into three divisions. Below is a semi-circular basin, whose waters are lashed into a heavy sea by the plunging torrent which falls into it. Boats ply between the foot of the rock on which the Castle of Laufen stands and a square tower on the opposite shore. These light craft make heavy weather of it, but with ordinary caution they are safe enough.
There was nothing else to see at Schaffhausen, and the excursionists took the train for Constance. The last portion of the trip was on the banks of the Unter See, separated from the main body of the lake by a peninsula. The ride was less than two hours, and the party reached the "Goldener Adler" in time for dinner. Most of the Swiss hotels serve two or three dinners, table d'hôte, every day, the first being at one, and the last at five o'clock, the prices of which are from three to five francs.
"Young gentlemen, in what country is Constance?" asked Professor Mapps, when the party had assembled to visit the objects of interest in the town.
"In Switzerland."
"No."
"We certainly crossed the Rhine on an iron bridge, when we came into the place," replied one of the students.
"That is very true, but Constance belongs to the Grand Duchy of Baden. It was formerly a free city, but was annexed to Austria in 1549, and ceded to Baden in 1805. It once had forty thousand inhabitants, but now has only eight thousand. It is a very old city, as you may judge from the buildings you have already seen, many of which are just as they were four hundred years ago. The town is of great historical interest."
"What was the Council of Constance, sir?" asked one of the students.
"I will tell you when we visit the Kaufhaus," replied the professor.
Attended by several guides, the excursionists walked to the minster, a Gothic structure founded in the eleventh century, but rebuilt in the sixteenth. The guides indicated the spot where Huss stood when sentenced to be burned to death. From this church the party went to the Kaufhaus.