“Got it?” asked Aventayle.
Without a word, the fiend strode to Hawkesley, and laid the letter in his hand. It was long, and as the author began, with some eagerness, to read it, Aventayle said,
“Bother reading and spoiling talk. Put it into your pocket.”
Many a day afterwards, Hawkesley recalled the circumstances to his mind, and remembered that the letter had been put into his hand by the devil.
BATHS OF AIX AND ANNEXATION OF SAVOY.
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Fishermen of Aix. (See page 150.)
Savoy is always interesting; the country, its wildness, its glaciers. Chamounix, Mont Cenis, Mont Blanc, &c., are in Savoy. But it has become of intense interest of late, on account of the annexation question; and having been in the most beautiful part of the country, namely Aix, this last summer, I hope it may be found interesting to give some short account of Aix les Bains and the beautiful lake of Bourget.
I dare say many have been at Aix; in fact, before the railway from Paris was completed, there was a steamer which went up the Rhone from Lyons, along a canal which joins the Lake Bourget, and from Aix the traveller went on by post or diligence to Chambery, and so over the Mont Cenis to Turin: this steamer still plies.
“Between France and Italy, equidistant from Naples and Paris, suspended from the sides of Switzerland like one of the roses of its Alps to its rock, is a charming country, which opens its hospitable valleys to Europe as soon as summer comes. This is Savoy.”
Such is the flourishing description with which the writer of “A Season at Aix” opens his work, and this grandiose style is continued throughout the finely illustrated volume. Its origin is curious: the government contractor for the gaming table at Aix, wishing to attract company, had this volume prepared at considerable cost. Luckily for the morals of the virtuous, though not for the pocket of the contractor, rouge et noir was put down by law; and there is no longer the disgrace of state-patronised gaming, as is yet permitted at some German watering-places.
The whole country is about 100 miles from north to south, and about 95 from east to west, and the population about 400,000.
As regards the house of Savoy, originally German, though the state is small and poor, its history is important as being at once remarkable for its antiquity and its many illustrious princes, its good and bad fortune, the warlike and chivalrous bearing of its princes (Prince Eugene amongst the rest), down to the noble and unfortunate Charles Albert, at once the Hero and the Martyr of Italian Liberty! The tale shows a series of fights, either at one time seeking to repel encroachments, or at another supporting some ally, or seeking to recover some contested inheritance. Savoy has changed masters more than once. Louis XIV. conquered it, but it was restored at the Peace of Ryswick. Again Savoy and Nice were added to France in 1791, and restored to Piedmont in 1814. The great struggle of Charles Albert against Austria ended with his defeat, 23rd March, 1849, at Novara, when he abdicated, dying the 29th of July in the same year at Oporto. Victor Emmanuel succeeded him, and it is to be hoped he will retain the liberty of his own state, and obtain it for the whole of the Italian peninsula.
It was interesting to be at Aix and at Chambery just after the annexation. To an Englishman this appears a dreadful wrench; passing by the stroke of a pen from liberty to despotism, from one set of hands to another. The common people perhaps did not feel this, and as regards material prosperity, the being annexed to France must be all in their favour. Little cared for by Piedmont hitherto, harassed by the French and Swiss Customhouses on their frontiers, finding but a scant market in Piedmont and Switzerland for their productions; all this will now be changed, capital will flow in, the current of improvement in agriculture and trade will run on up to the very foot of the Alps, and instead of being dependent on the dear market of Geneva, their luxuries and wants will be supplied by Paris and all France, and free trade, now being developed, will reach Savoy.
This may not, and indeed does not, compensate the patriot for the loss he has sustained. No real reliance is to be placed on the vote oui or non; the parties were drilled into acquiescence; and even well-to-do persons, seeing how hopeless it was to oppose it, and become a marked frondeur, voted oui, when their hearts said non.
As regards the French Codes Criminel et Civile, I believe they much resemble the Piedmontese, and here, perhaps, there is no evil in the change. The stricter game laws and tax cause great dissatisfaction. I was told that the conscription was a change for the better, the seven years’ service being far less onerous than that of Piedmont. Only those who are now born will call themselves true Savoyards, as existing before the annexation; as old Lord Marischal, Frederick the Great’s friend, told the