After The Storm | Page 3

have not always fought for liberty, they have done so
invariably for science; and wherever they carried their victorious arms abuses were
abolished, ameliorations of all kinds followed and the arts of life were improved. Our
government, since the accession of George III, has never raised its arm except in favour
of old abuses, to uphold despotism and unfair privileges or to establish commercial
monopoly."

Sometimes, indeed, speaking of his own country and its government, Major Frye uses
very hard words, which might seem unpatriotic if we did not know, from many other
memoirs and letters, to what a terrible strain orthodox Toryism, coupled with bigotry and
hypocrisy, had put the patience of liberal Englishmen at that period. He called the British
government "the most dangerous, artful, and determined enemy of all
liberty,"--"England," he says, "has been always ready to lend a hand to crush liberty, to
perpetuate abuses and to rivet the fetters of monarchical, feudal and ecclesiastical
tyranny." And later on he inveighs against the English merchants, who "contributed with
their gold to uphold the corrupt system of Pitt and to carry on unjust, unreasonable and
liberticide wars."
Whatever may be the final judgement of history on the Tory principles in politics in the
days of the Congress of Vienna, Major Frye's love of liberty and intellectual progress
entitle him to the sympathy of those who share his generous feelings and do not consider
that personal freedom and individual rights are articles for home use only. Since Frye
wrote, the whole of Europe, excepting perhaps Russia, has reaped the benefits of the
French Revolution, and reduced, if not suppressed, what the Major called "kingcraft and
priestcraft." He did not attempt to divine the future, but the history of Europe in the
nineteenth century has been largely in accordance with his desires and hopes. It is not a
small merit for a writer, in the midst of one of the most rabid reactions that the world has
known, to have clung with such tenacity to ideals, the complete victory of which may
now be contemplated in the near future.
S.R.

CONTENTS



PART I.


CHAPTER I
MAY-JUNE, 1815
Passage from Ceylon to England--Napoleon's return--Ostend--Bruges --Ghent--The King
of France at Mass--Alost--Bruxelles--The Duke of Wellington very confident--Feelings
of the Belgians--Good conduct of British troops--Monuments in

Bruxelles--Theatricals--Genappe and Namur--Complaints against the Prussian
troops--Mons--Major-General Adam--Tournay--A French deserter--General Clinton's
division--Cavalry review--The Duke de Berri--Back to Bruxelles--Unjust opinions about
Napoleon and the French--Battle at Ligny--The day of Waterloo in Bruxelles--Visit to the
battlefield--Terrible condition of the wounded--Kindness of the Bruxellois.

CHAPTER II
From Bruxelles to Liége--A priest's declamation against the French
Revolution--Maastricht--Aix-la-Chapelle--Imperial relics--Napoleon
regretted--Klingmann's "Faust"--A Tyrolese beauty--Cologne--Difficulties about a
passport--The Cathedral--King-craft and priest-craft--The Rhine--Bonn and
Godesberg--Goethe's "Götz von Berlichingen"--The Seven Mountains--German
women--Andernach--Ehrenbreitstein--German hatred against France--Coblentz--Intrigues
of the Bourbon princes in Coblentz--Mayence-- Bieberich--Conduct of the Allies towards
Napoleon--Frankfort on the Mayn--An anecdote about Lord Stewart and
Lafayette--German poetry--The question of Alsace and Lorraine--Return to
Bruxelles--Napoleon's surrender.

CHAPTER III
From Bruxelles to Paris--Restoration of Louis XVIII--The officers of the allied
armies--The Palais Royal--The Louvre--Protest of the author against the proposed
despoiling of the French Museums--Unjust strictures against Napoleon's military
policy--The cant about revolutionary robberies--The Grand Opera--Monuments in
Paris--The Champs Elysées--Saint-Cloud--The Hôtel des Invalides--The
Luxembourg--General Labédoyère--Priests and emigrants--Prussian Plunder--Handsome
behaviour of the English officers--Reminiscences of Eton--Versailles.

CHAPTER IV
From Paris to Bruxelles--Visiting the plains of Waterloo--The Duke de Berri at
Lille--Beauvais--Return to Paris--Remarks on the French theatre --Talma--Mlle
Duchesnois--Mlle Georges--French alexandrine verse--The Abbé Delille--The Opéra
Comique.

CHAPTER V
From Paris to Milan through Dijon, Chalon-sur-Saone, Lyons, Geneva and the

Simplon--Auxerre--Dijon--Napoleon at Chalon-sur-Saone--The army of the
Loire--Mâcon--French grisettes--Lyons--Monuments and theatricals-- Geneva--Character
and opinions of the Genevois--Voltaire's chateau at Ferney--The chevalier Zadera--From
Geneva to Milan--Crossing the Simplon--Arona--The theatres in
Milan--Rossini--Monuments in Milan--Art encouraged by the French--Mr Eustace's
bigotry--Return to Switzerland --Clarens and Vevey--Lausanne--Society in
Lausanne--Return to Paris--The Louvre stripped--Death of Marshal Ney.



CHAPTER VI
">
PART II

CHAPTER VI
MARCH-JUNE, 1816
Ball at Cambray, attended by the Duke of Wellington--An Adventure between Saint
Quentin and Compiègne--Paris revisited--Colonel Wardle and Mrs Wallis--Society in
Paris--The Sourds-Muets--The Cemetery of Père La Chaise--Apathy of the French
people--The priests--Marriage of the Duke de Berri.

CHAPTER VII
Journey from Paris to Lausanne--Besançon--French refugees in Lausanne --Francois
Lamarque--General Espinassy--Bordas--Gautier--Michau--M. de Laharpe--Mlle
Michaud--Levade, a Protestant minister--Chambéry--Aix --Details about M. de Boigne's
career in India--English Toryism and intolerance--Valley of Maurienne--Passage across
Mont Cenis and arrival at Suza--Turin.

CHAPTER VIII
Journey from Turin to Bologna--Asti--Schiller and Alfieri--Italian cuisine--The
vetturini--Marengo--Piacenza--The Trebbia--Parma--The Empress Maria

Louisa--Modena--Bologna--The University--The Marescalchi Gallery--Character of the
Bolognese.

CHAPTER IX
Journey across the Appennines to Florence--Tuscan idioms and customs--Monuments
and galleries at Florence--The Cascino--Churches-- Theatres--Popularity of the Grand
Duke--Napoleon's downfall not regretted--Academies in Florence.

CHAPTER X
Journey from Florence to Rome--Sienna--Radicofani--Bolsena--Montefiascone
wine--Viterbo--Baccano--The Roman Campagna--The papal douans--Monuments