By way of shewing how fond the Bernois are of old institutions and customs, they have been at the trouble to catch three or four bears and keep them in a walled pit in the city, where they are well fed and taken care of. The popular superstition is that the bears entertained in this manner contribute to the safety of the commonwealth; and this establishment continued ever in full force, until the dissolution of the old Confederacy took place and the establishment in its place of the Helvetic Republic under the influence of the French directorial government. The custom, then, appearing absurd and useless, was abolished, and the bears were sold. But since the peace of 1814 other bears have been caught and are nourishd, as the former ones were, at the expence of the state.
Bern derives its name from Büren, the German word for Bears (plural number). Only the French spell Berne, with an e at the end of it.
There are no theatrical amusements going forward here. Cards and now and then a little music form the evening recreations.
In the inn at Bern I became acquainted with a most delightful Milanese lady and her son. Her name is L———; she is the widow of an opulent banker at Milan and has a large family of children. She was about thirty-eight years of age and is still a remarkably handsome woman. Time has made very little impression on her and she unites very pleasing manners with a great taste for litterature. She is greatly proficient in the English language and litterature, which she understands thoroughly, tho' she speaks it with difficulty. She is an enthusiastic admirer of Shakespeare, Milton and Byron. She had been to Zurich for her son, who was employed in a commercial house there, in order to take him back with her into Italy. She spoke French as well as Italian, and her son had a very good knowledge of German. She offered me a seat in her carriage, on the understanding that I was going to Lausanne, where she intended to stop a day or two. An offer of the kind made by so elegant and fascinating a woman you may be assured I did not scruple to accept, and I was in hopes of improving on this acquaintance and renewing it at Milan. Indeed, did not business oblige me to remain some weeks at Lausanne, I should certainly offer my services to escort her all the way to Milan. She had letters of introduction for Lausanne, and during her stay there I acted as her cicerone, to point out the most interesting objects and points of view, which the place affords.
[104] Louis Charles Joseph Gravier, vicomte de Vergennes d'Alonné, was the son of the Comte de Vergennes, who was minister under the reign of Louisi XVI. Born at Constantinople in 1766, he took service at the early age of thirteen, was promoted captain in 1782 and colonel in 1788. Having emigrated in 1791, he served in Condé's army, then took service in England from 1795 to 1797. On the 3rd March, 1815, he re-entered the army as "maréchal de camp," and, on the 2nd November of that same year, was promoted general commander of the department of Puy de Dôme. He retired on the 8th March, 1817, and seems to have been much regretted at Clermont. Died 1821.—ED.
[105] Jean François Wlnkens, born at Aix-la-Chapelle In 1790, is mentioned in the records of the French War Office as having served in the 25th Regiment at Waterloo. His family may have belonged to Strassburg.—ED.
[106] Pierre Jacques Jomini, Protestant minister at Avenches from 1808 to 1819.—ED.
[107] The Treytorrens family, of old nobility and fame, now extinct, possessed a large estate at Guévaux, on the borders of the lake of Morat.—ED.