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144

and ogling all the women. He seemed to be verging on eighty,
and was a veteran of the first empire. As he tottered along
and thus made an indecent exhibition of himself, the sight was by
no means edifying. The next day was spent at Lyons also. We
took a carriage and rode to a church on a height opposite the
city, and then went to the junction of the Rhone and Saone below
the city. The junction is called "la perte de la Saone" in consequence
of the muddy water of that stream becoming lost in the clear water
of the Rhone after uniting with it. We also visited a neighborhood
where were many hand looms upon which the costly silks of
the place were being worked, and in the museum of paintings
I was immediately attracted by a painting by Vigée le Brun
representing Madame de Staël in the character of Corinne.

The next morning early we took our seats in the middle com-
partment of a French diligence, having for fellow passengers, a
Russian gentlemen and his wife and two fellow countrymen, and
we reached Geneva a short time before sunset. I observed that
the Russian had a Prussian passport, and I presume that many
of that nationality were allowed to stay in France, notwithstand-
ing the war, provided they were discreet in their conduct. I have
forgotten the name of the Muscovite, but I met him afterwards in
Havre where he told me that he did business in Calcutta, and
the next year when in St Petersburg, I saw his wife in a store
on the Nevski Prospect, but did not speak to her, as I had
never been introduced, and she might have thought my doing
so was a breach of etiquette.

I found Geneva, as I had expected, a pretty place, and the rapid
current of the river Rhone under the bridge reminded me somewhat
of the rapids above the falls of Niagara. I went into several watch-
makers shops, thinking that I might find a watch chain that
would please me, but was disappointed in their appearance. The
Paris watch chains were infinitely more beautiful. I therefore bought
nothing in the way of jewelry. In the afternoon of that first day
we took the steamer on the lake, bound for Vevey, where we spent
the night, having landed near the Chateau de Chillon which
we visited and then walked to our destination.

I was surprised to see the quantity of vineyards on the side of
the lake where Vevey stood and that night at the hotel we or-
dered one of the native wines. It was a white wine, without much
strength, but quite drinkable, and the price moderate. Its name
I have forgotten.

The next morning after breakfast we took
the steamer to Lausanne where we spent part of the morning
and in the afternoon we were again in Geneva at the hotel des
Bergues. The lake of Geneva need not be described, as it has
been seen by almost every European tourist. The right bank as we
left Geneva, with its towering and precipitous mountains, was
the most striking and grandest.

After spending a second night at the hotel we took the diligence

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