XIII.
Robinson, in agony, calls for his coat and hat, "For," as he cried out to Brown, "not a moment is to be lost in endeavouring to see the British Minister."
XIV.
They gain an audience of His Excellency the British Minister, and ask his interference in behalf of a persecuted countryman.
We are happy to add that the interference was quite successful. Jones was liberated immediately, and shortly afterwards the British Minister for Foreign Affairs, in a despatch to the German Minister for the same, expressed his conviction that "The whole civilised world reprobated, with one voice, a system at once tyrannical and cruel, a remnant of the darkest ages of man's history, and utterly unworthy of the present era of progress and enlightenment."
Our friends were advised, however, to leave the country as soon and as quietly as possible. They departed accordingly.
[BADEN TO BASLE.]
Head-dresses of peasantry. A sketch on the road to Basle.
How Brown and Jones went in a third class carriage (Robinson would not; it did not seem "respectable"), that they might see the natives, and how B. drew the portrait of one, to her evident dissatisfaction.
The omnibus besieged and taken by storm.
[BASLE.]
"The height of the omnibusses is quite disgusting." --_Extract from unpublished documents in possession of ROBINSON, who himself fell in the mud, while climbing from the roof of one of those vehicles._
Scene from the road, near Basle.
Storks' nest, Basle.
[SWITZERLAND.]
BOAT STATION ON THE LAKE OF LUCERNE; AS SKETCHED BY BROWN FROM THE STEAMER.
According to the guide-book, the paintings on the wall represent Furst, Stauffach, and Melchthal, swearing to liberate their country; but Jones said he believed them to be portraits of a medieval Swiss Brown, Jones, and Robinson, in the act of vowing eternal friendship.
The safest way of coming down a mountain.
"We got out of the diligence (at a time when it was obliged to go very slowly), in order to make an excursion on foot in search of the picturesque, being told that we might meet the carriage at a certain point, about a mile further on. We saw many magnificent views, and did a great deal of what might be called rough walking; but perhaps the thing that struck us most was, that on emerging at the appointed spot for rejoining the diligence, we beheld it a speck in the distance, just departing out of sight." --_Extract from Jones's Journal._
The seven ages of Robinson's beard.
What are they to do now?
DESCENT OF THE ST. GOTHARD.
Having taken their places on the outside of the diligence, Brown, Jones, and Robinson can the better enjoy the grandeur of the scenery.
They see Italy in the distance.
A meeting on the mountain.
Pilgrims coming _down_ the "Hill of Difficulty."
[ITALY.]
BREAKFAST AT BELLINZONA.
It was their first day in Italy, and how they did enjoy it! The repast was served in a stone summer-house attached to the hotel. The sun was so bright, and so hot; the sky was so blue, the vegetation so green, the mountains so purple, the grapes so large, and everything so beautiful, that Brown and Jones both decided that the scene fully realised all their imaginings of Italy. Robinson was enthusiastic, too, at first, and was beginning to say something about "Italia, O Italia," when his eye lit upon a green lizard running up the wall. From that moment he was more subdued.
How they got Robinson up the hills.
[ITALIAN LAKES.]
They land upon Austrian territory en route for Milan. While the "proper officer" takes possession of their passports, the whole available population pounces upon the luggage, and, after apportioning it into "small allotments," carries it off to the custom house.