Down the Rhine; Or, Young America in Germany by Oliver Optic (best book club books for discussion .txt) 📕

the purpose. The hands at the clewline walked away with it, until the rope bore hard on the throat of the carpenter. All this was done in an instant, for Phillips had carefully adjusted all the details of his share of the work. Bitts tried to cry out; but when he did so, Phillips ordered the hands at the buntline to haul taut.

"Keep still, old fellow, or you shall be hung!" said the ruffian in charge of the deed.

Bitts was obliged to keep still, for when he struggled to release his neck with his hands the rope was tightened. In the mean time, Perth had secured the slide, and those below had barred the doors.

"Clear away the boats!" and all but Phillips, who was obliged to watch Bitts, sprang to their stations for lowering the boats, and in a couple of minutes all four of them were in the water, with the oars tossed, ready to pull for the shore. In the cabin there was a tremendous din, made by Cleats and the other officers, who had been aroused by the noise. They were trying to batter down the door leading into the steerage, but as yet with no success.

"All ready!" shouted Perth.

Phillips, who was the only one of the crew remaining on board, hastily belayed the clewline at the fife-rail, hauling it just taut enough to hold Bitts, without choking him to death. As the ruffian leaped into the boat, to which he had been assigned, Perth gave the order to shove off, and the runaways pulled with all their might for the shore.

 

CHAPTER XVII.

HEIDELBERG AND HOMBURG.

On the arrival of the excursion party at Heidelberg, they were conducted, by Mr. Arbuckle's avant-courrier, to the Hôtel Prinz Karl, in the marketplace, and near the castle, which is the principal object of interest in the town. One of the first persons that Shuffles saw, as he walked up to the hotel, was Lady Feodora, promenading the veranda with Sir William. She looked a shade paler than when the captain had met her last; but her color deepened when she discovered her gallant friend.

"I am delighted to see you, Captain Shuffles!" exclaimed she, deserting her titled companion, and rushing towards him, her cheeks suffused with blushes.

"This is a very unexpected pleasure," replied the commander, his brown face flushing, "but none the less welcome because unexpected."

"How glad I am to see you again!" said she, taking his offered hand, as they met.

"Thank you; but not so glad as I am," added he, in a lower tone.

"I hope you are very well, Captain Shuffles," interposed Sir William, stiffly.

"Quite well, I thank you."

"Lady Feodora has been quite ill," added the baronet, "or we should have been in Brussels by this time."

"I have not been very ill; but father thought we had better remain here a few days. Now I am almost glad I was ill, since it gives me the pleasure of seeing you again," continued the young lady, with a childish candor which brought a frown to the brow of the little baronet.

"You are very kind, Lady Feodora."

Sir William thought so too.

"We have been all over the castle, Captain Shuffles; and I am going to be your guide," continued she, playfully.

"I am afraid your health will not permit you to do so much," suggested Sir William.

"O, I feel quite strong now."

The conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Feodora's father and mother, who extended to Shuffles a cordial and hearty greeting. Mr. Lowington and the party were warmly welcomed by the earl's family. The business of sight-seeing required immediate attention, and Shuffles was taken into a carriage with his English friends; for the daughter insisted upon redeeming her promise. Sir William evidently did not enjoy the excursion; but he was apparently unwilling to be left at the hotel.

Heidelberg is beautifully located on a narrow strip of land between the River Neckar and the vast, high rock on which the castle stands. It has one principal street, nearly three miles long, and contains a population of about seventeen thousand. It is situated in the midst of some of the finest scenery in Germany; and all tourists agree in calling it one of the most delightful residences in Europe. The students walked through the principal street and along the banks of the Neckar until dinner time, when Professor Mapps found an opportunity to say something about the place.

"Heidelberg was once the capital of the Palatinate established here by the Emperor Otto of Germany in the tenth century. The Palatines were sub-rulers, whose duty it was to look after the interests of the emperor. This palatinate, including the northern portion of Baden and a part of Bavaria, became the most powerful in the empire, and was divided into the Upper and Lower Palatinates."

"What does palatinate mean, sir?" asked a student.

"It means merely the territory of a sub-ruler, who was called a palatine, from the Latin word palatium, a palace. When the throne of Germany became elective, these palatines chose the emperor, and for this reason were called electors-palatine, or simply electors. The castle here was the residence of the elector of this division. The town has suffered more from the ravages of war than almost any other in Europe. It has been bombarded five times, burned twice, and captured and pillaged three times.

"The university is one of the most noted in the world, as well as one of the oldest in Germany, having been founded in 1386. It has had at one time nearly nine hundred students, and generally has seven or eight hundred. It employs the most celebrated professors in Europe, especially in the departments of law and medicine. Its library contains some very rare and valuable works, printed and in manuscript."

"What about the duels, sir?" inquired Haven.

"The students here are noted for the duels which take place among them. Four or five have occurred in a single day, and perhaps they average a dozen a week. But I wish to say, in the beginning, that duelling and other vicious practices charged upon the University of Heidelberg are confined to about one fifth of the whole number of students. They are not all duellists, nor all inordinate beer-drinkers. Probably they are no worse than the residents at other universities, though the duels are certainly exceptional. Four fifths of the students here are devoted to their studies, improve their time to the utmost, and never engage in, or even see, a duel.

"These combats—which they are, rather than duels—take place at the Hirschgasse, a lonely hotel on the other side of the Neckar. The fighting and dissipated students form themselves into clubs, called 'chores,' among which a great deal of jealousy and ill feeling prevails. The fights are to avenge insults, to 'see who is the best fellow,' or between representatives of different chores, who battle for the honor of their clubs. The champions fight with blunt swords ground sharp on the two edges. They slash each other, but do not thrust, so that the combats seldom result in mortal wounds.

"In a fight for the honor of the clubs, the parties tie up their necks and right arms in bandages and cushions. When they fight for the satisfaction of an injury or insult, they have no protection. The combat, in all cases, is decided in fifteen minutes; and at the end of this time, the one who has the fewest cuts is declared to be the best fellow. If one of the champions is severely injured in less than fifteen minutes, so that he cannot continue the fight, it is finished up on another occasion. A surgeon is always in attendance to decide whether a wounded contestant is able to go on. The police are on the watch for these fights; but the students station sentinels for some distance from the arena of contest, and the approach of an officer is communicated to them in season to enable the combatants to escape. I need not add, that these duels are brutal and disgraceful. It looks as though the police winked at them.

"In some of these clubs, the ability to drink from a dozen to thirty glasses of beer at a sitting is a necessary qualification for admission. But these beastly and brutal tendencies belong, I repeat, to a minority of the students."

After the lecture, the party started for the castle, Shuffles riding with the earl's family, and Paul with the Arbuckles, while the rest walked. Heidelberg Castle has the reputation of being one of the most imposing and interesting ruins in Europe. The grounds are quite extensive, and full of curious objects. The students wandered through the halls and subterranean vaults till they came to the famous tun, which is thirty-six feet long, and twenty-four feet high, having a capacity of eight hundred hogsheads. It was employed to contain the wine of the vineyards; but it has not been used during the last hundred years. A run to the Königstuhl, or King's Seat,—a high hill behind the castle, which commands a magnificent view of the valleys of the Neckar and the Rhine, and of the mountains in the vicinity,—finished the work of the week.

As the next day was Sunday, the party remained at Heidelberg, and attended church at the English chapel in the forenoon. In the afternoon they visited the Church of the Holy Ghost, which has a partition through the entire length of it, dividing it into two equal parts, one of which is used by the Catholics, and the other by the Protestants. Services in both take place at the same time.

On Monday morning the excursionists, including the earl's party, proceeded to Darmstadt. When Lady Feodora had taken a back seat next to the window, in a compartment of the railway carriage, she insisted that Shuffles should have the seat opposite, much to the disgust of Sir William, who usually occupied that position. In fact, he was angry, and did not take much pains to conceal his ill-will. It is doubtful whether Shuffles understood the matter, but the young lady was very strongly interested in him. She did not like the baronet, and she did like the young commander. As the latter had rendered her a signal service on Lake Constance, she felt justified in extending unusual attentions to him. Sir William was jealous, as well he may have been; for his lady-love hardly condescended to notice him, while all her smiles were bestowed upon the gallant young seaman.

There was nothing especial to be seen in Darmstadt, and after the party had walked through the principal street, and glanced at the Grand Ducal Palace, they were ready to continue their journey to Frankfurt, where they arrived in less than an hour, and repaired to the Hôtel de Russie for dinner. Mr. Drexel, one of the landlords, was especially devoted to the party, and afforded them every facility for seeing the city in the shortest possible time. The dinner was capital, and when it had been disposed of by the hungry students, they were in condition to hear Professor Mapps.

"Darmstadt, where we spent an hour this forenoon," said the professor, "is the capital of Hesse Darmstadt, which consists of two divisions of territory, separated by a strip of land belonging to Hesse Cassel and Frankfurt. It has an area of thirty-two hundred square miles,—being about two thirds of the size of Connecticut—and a population of about eight hundred and fifty thousand. It is a constitutional monarchy in its government, the Grand Duke Ludwig III. being the sovereign. The word Hesse, applied to several of the German states, indicates that they are parts of the original territory which bore that name. One of its rulers divided his country into four unequal parts, and gave them to his sons. Two of the descendants of these sons dying without children, there remained only Hesse Cassel and Hesse Darmstadt. Hesse Homburg formerly belonged to Darmstadt, but was ceded to another branch of the reigning family in 1622. It is composed of two parts; the smaller, containing forty-three