[102] Henry Augustus, thirteenth Viscount Dillon (1777-1832), married (1807) to Henrietta Browne (died 1862).—ED.
[103] Quoted from memory, with mistakes. The text has been corrected as it stands in Brantôme, Les Dames galantes, ed. Chasles, vol. I, p. 351.—ED.
AFTER WATERLOO
PART III.
CHAPTER XIII
MARCH-SEPTEMBER, 1817
Journey from Lausanne to Clermont-Ferrand—A wretched conveyance—The first dish of frogs—Society in Clermont-Ferrand—General de Vergeunes—Cleansing the town—Return to Lausanne—A zealous priest—Journey to Bern and back to Lausanne—Avenches—Lake Morat—Lake Neufchatel—The Diet in Bern—Character of the Bernois—A beautiful Milanese lady.
I started from Lausanne on the 4th March 1817, and arrived on the same day at 4 o'clock at Geneva. On my arrival at Geneva, my banker informed me that I had been denounced to the police, for some political opinions I had spoken at the Hôtel de l'Ecu de Genéve, previous to my journey into Italy, and that I had been traced as far as Turin. I went directly on hearing this to the police, and desired to know who my accusers were, and that the accusation against me might be investigated immediately. Both these propositions were however declined, and I was told it was an affaire passeé, and of no sort of consequence; so that from that day to this I have never been able to ascertain who my friends were.
I left Lausanne with the intention of paying a visit to my friend Col.
Wardle and his family at Clermont-Ferrand, in the Department of the Puy de
Dôme, in Auvergne, where they are residing. I staid three days at Geneva,
and then set off at 7 in the evening on the 8th March with the Courier for
Lyons.
I never regretted any thing so much, and was near paying severely for my rashness in putting myself into such a wretched conveyance, at such a season of the year; but I had made the agreement with the Courier without inspecting his carriage, and was obliged to adhere to the bargain. It was a vehicle entirely open before; it was a bitter cold, rainy, snowy night; and I had the rain and snow in my face the whole way, and on crossing the Cerdon I was seized with a violent ague fit, and suffered so much from it that on arrival at a village beyond Nantua where we stopped for supper, I determined to proceed no further, but to rest there that night; and I asked the innkeeper if he could furnish me with a bed for the night. He however made so many objections and seemed so unwilling that I should remain, that I was obliged to make up my mind to proceed. I allayed the frissonnement by a large glass of brandy and water, made fiery hot. At eight o'clock next morning I arrived at Lyons, more dead than alive. A warm bath, however, remaining in bed the whole day, buried in blankets, abstaining from all food, a few grains of calomel at night and copious libations of rice gruel the next day restored me completely to health; and after a séjour of four days at Lyons, I was enabled to proceed on my journey to Clermont on the 14th March. We arrived at Roanne in the evening and I stopped there the whole night.