“Where from?” “Siegesdorf.”
“Where to?” “Ulm.”
“Has he got the itch?” “No.”
“Then let him sign this book.”
At Augsburg the police were in a dilemma with respect to us. We had come by rail from Munich, and, to our surprise, were suffered to pass through the gate unchallenged by the sentinel, who paced leisurely before the guard-house. The following morning, on presenting our papers at the police-bureau, we were met with the accusation of having smuggled ourselves into the city; and, as the usual official routine had been departed from, we were ordered to proceed at once to the gates, and humbly deliver up our passports to the sentinel in due form, that the requirements of the law might be fulfilled. This sage proposition was, however, overruled in consideration of our being jewellers: the respectability of the craft being thus acknowledged. It was in Augsburg also that I narrowly
escaped being entered in the books of the Guild as “Mr. Great Britain, native of London;” the slim apprentice whose duty it was to make the entry, having mistaken the name of the country for that of the individual in my English passport.
I may not omit to mention, although I do it with a feeling of humiliation, that during our journey we availed ourselves of whatever assistance was granted by the Guild to “wandering boys” unable to obtain employment. We had a perfect right to this aid, and had, while in work, always contributed to the fund (in which we had, indeed, no option); but I must confess that there was something exceedingly like asking for alms in the whole process of obtaining it. Our slender resources must plead as an excuse. The following were our individual receipts: in Linz, twenty-four kreutzers; in Munich, thirty-six; Augsburg, eighteen; Ulm, fifteen; Stutgard, thirty; Heilbron, twenty-four; Heidelberg, nine, (begged from shop to shop, there being no general cash-box); and Carlsruhe, twenty-four; making a total of one hundred and eighty kreutzers, or the munificent sum of two shillings and sixpence in English money. What must be the fate of those whose dependence was upon such a pittance!
I had passed two whole years and a few days in Germany, and during a period of eighty-eight weeks, had been fully at work. I had received fifty-six pounds thirteen shillings in wages, or an average, throughout the whole term, of eleven shillings per week. I felt grateful for this result in a strange country, and left Germany with a lingering step.
As we crossed over the bridge of Kiel on our way to Strassburg, the French soldiery were quietly fishing on their side of the Rhine, and the sentinel, from whom we had expected a harsh summons to the guard-house, and a rigorous search into our knapsacks, eyed us with a look of half pity, half contempt, and allowed us to pass unchallenged. We were, to him, only so many miserable “square-heads” (Germans) on our way to Paris. The curiosities of Strassburg need not detain me: the cathedral, and the wonderful clock; the theatre, which we visited; the fortifications, which we overlooked from the lofty spire; those things are set down in every traveller’s guidebook, and the recollection of them is probably much more agreeable to me than their description would be to the reader. We had resolved not to tramp through France, and we therefore sought places in the diligence; and by the time I had paid forty-three
francs for my seat in that respectable vehicle, and ten francs for the carriage of my box from Vienna to Strassburg, together with two francs for a passeport provisoire; and by the time also that I had paid some two francs more for extra luggage, including two loaves and a string of six Strassburger sausages, which were all included in the weight, I found that I should arrive in Paris with less than five francs in my pocket. And this I accordingly did, after a very uncomfortable ride of fifty-two hours, and within a day of six weeks from our departure from Vienna.