Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland eBook


[Footnote 40:  ‘Swift-foot Almond, and land-louping Braan.’]

[Footnote 41:  The sentry-box is omitted in the accompanying illustration.]

[Footnote 42:  Believed to be derived from Collis Dianae.  Dunod found that Chaudonne was an early form of the name, and so preferred Collis Dominarum, with reference to the house of nuns placed there.]

[Footnote 43:  Schmidt was not without the support of example in the indulgence of his warlike tastes.  Thirty-eight years before, the religious took so active a part in the defence of Dole against Louis XIII., that the Capuchin Father d’Iche had the direction of the artillery; and when an officer of the enemy had seized the Brother Claude by the cowl, the Father Barnabas made the officer loose his hold by slaying him with a demi-pique.  When Arbois was besieged by Henry IV., the Sieur Chanoine Pecauld is specially mentioned as proving himself a bon harquebouzier.]

[Footnote 44:  There is a painting by Vander Meulen, representing this siege, in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.]

[Footnote 45:  The Church of S. Philibert, in Dijon, now a forage magazine, has an inscription let into the wall almost ludicrously out of keeping with the present desecrated state of the building,—­Dilexi Domine Decorem Domus tuae, 1648.]

[Footnote 46:  ‘Qu’on les laisse pour grain!’]

[Footnote 47:  In the year 1648, it was suspected that some decay was going on in the material of this Host, and the following translation from the Latin describes the investigation entered into by the Dean and a large body of clergy and laity, in order to quiet the public mind:—­’Apres que tous les susnommes (viz. the Dean, Canons, President of the Parliament, &c.) etant presents eurent adores le S. Sacrement, la custode fut ouverte avec tout le respect possible; et alors le dit Doyen apercut un vermisseau roule en spirale, qu’il saisit avec la pointe d’une epingle et placa sur un corporal ou chacun l’examina; puis on le brula avec un charbon pris dans l’encensoir, et ses cendres furent jetees dans la piscine.  On put alors constater tout le dommage que ce miserable petit animal avait cause aux especes sacrees dont les debris ici tombaient en poussiere, la se trouvaient ronges et laceres, de telle sorte que l’Hostie n’avait presque plus rien de sa forme circulaire, et presentait de profondes decoupures partout ou le vermisseau s’etait livre a ses sinueus es evolutions.’]

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I rejoined my sisters at Neufchatel on the 5th of July, and proceeded thence with them by the line which passes through the Val de Travers.  One of them had been at Fleurier, in 1860, on the day of the opening of this line, and she added an interest to the various tunnels, by telling us that a Swiss gentleman of her acquaintance, who had taken a place in one of the open carriages of the first train, found, on reaching the daylight after one of the tunnels, that his neighbour had been killed by a small stone which had fallen on to his head.  Where the stone came from, no one could say, nor yet when it fell, for the unfortunate man had made no sign or movement of any kind.

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