We breathed more freely when we had gained the open air. I am sure there was an odor of sulphur about the place.
The scenery around Baden-Baden is striking and wild. Gloomy valleys abound, and dark forests cover many of the hills. We took a kind of wagonet one morning, and climbed the mountain behind the city, passing what is known as the "New Schloss," or castle, before leaving its limits. It is anything but _new_, however, having been erected some four or five hundred years. Its horrible dungeons, where all manner of torments were inflicted, and tortures suffered by the unfortunate wretches incarcerated here, attract scores of visitors. We went on, by the zigzag road up the mountain, to the Old Schloss upon its summit. This was the residence of the reigning family of Baden before the erection of the New Schloss. Hardly anything remains of it now but the walls of a square tower, from the battlements of which, by mounting to an encircling gallery, you may obtain a view well worth the effort. As far as the eye can see in one direction, extends the Black Forest--the very name of which brings to mind elfish legends innumerable. But, though our way led along its edge, so that we were shut in by the chill and gloom of the evergreens which give it its name, we saw neither elves nor gnomes, nor the traditional "wood-cutter, named Hans, who lived upon the borders of the Black Forest," about whom we used to read when we were children.
From Baden-Baden we took the railroad, following the course of the Rhine to Strasbourg, spending only a night here, in order to visit the beautiful cathedral; then on to Lucerne, waiting an hour or two to break the long day's ride, at Basle. Here the mountains began to grow before our eyes. We shot through tunnel after tunnel, cut in the solid rock, and suddenly sweeping around a curve, the everlasting hills wrapped in perpetual snows, greeted our astonished sight. We had reached the Mecca of our hopes at last.
The Lake of Lucerne.--Days of rest in the city.--An excursion up the Righi.--The crowd at the summit.--Dinner at midnight.--Rising before "the early worm."--The "sun-rise" according to Murray.--Animated scarecrows.--Off for a tour through Switzerland.--The lake for the last time.--Grütlii.--William Tell's chapel.--Fluellen.--Altorf.--Swiss haymakers.--An hour at Amsteg.--The rocks close in.--The Devil's Bridge.--The dangerous road.--"A carriage has gone over the precipice!"--Andermatt.--Desolate rocks.--Exquisite wild flowers.--The summit of the Furka.--A descent to the Rhone glacier.--Into the ice.--Swiss villages.--Brieg.--The convent inn.--The bare little chapel on the hill.--To Martigny.