The Red Inn | Page 3

the recent conscription law due to General Jourdan,
had naturally preferred to continue their studies on the battle-field
rather than be restricted to mere military duty, little in keeping with
their early education and their peaceful destinies. Men of science,
pacific yet useful, these young men did an actual good in the midst of
so much misery, and formed a bond of sympathy with other men of
science in the various countries through which the cruel civilization of
the Republic passed.
The two young men were each provided with a pass and a commission
as assistant-surgeon signed Coste and Bernadotte; and they were on
their way to join the demi-brigade to which they were attached. Both
belonged to moderately rich families in Beauvais, a town in which the
gentle manners and loyalty of the provinces are transmitted as a species
of birthright. Attracted to the theatre of war before the date at which
they were required to begin their functions, they had travelled by
diligence to Strasburg. Though maternal prudence had only allowed
them a slender sum of money they thought themselves rich in
possessing a few louis, an actual treasure in those days when assignats
were reaching their lowest depreciation and gold was worth far more
than silver. The two young surgeons, about twenty years of age at the
most, yielded themselves up to the poesy of their situation with all the
enthusiasm of youth. Between Strasburg and Bonn they had visited the
Electorate and the banks of the Rhine as artists, philosophers, and
observers. When a man's destiny is scientific he is, at their age, a being
who is truly many-sided. Even in making love or in travelling, an
assistant-surgeon should be gathering up the rudiments of his fortune or

his coming fame.
The two young had therefore given themselves wholly to that deep
admiration which must affect all educated men on seeing the banks of
the Rhine and the scenery of Suabia between Mayenne and Cologne,--a
strong, rich, vigorously varied nature, filled with feudal memories, ever
fresh and verdant, yet retaining at all points the imprints of fire and
sword. Louis XIV. and Turenne have cauterized that beautiful land.
Here and there certain ruins bear witness to the pride or rather the
foresight of the King of Versailles, who caused to be pulled down the
ancient castles that once adorned this part of Germany. Looking at this
marvellous country, covered with forests, where the picturesque charm
of the middle ages abounds, though in ruins, we are able to conceive
the German genius, its reverie, its mysticism.
The stay of the two friends at Bonn had the double purpose of science
and pleasure. The grand hospital of the Gallo-Batavian army and of
Augereau's division was established in the very palace of the Elector.
These assistant-surgeons of recent date went there to see old comrades,
to present their letters of recommendation to their medical chiefs, and
to familiarize themselves with the first aspects of their profession.
There, as elsewhere, they got rid of a few prejudices to which we cling
so fondly in favor of the beauties of our native land. Surprised by the
aspect of the columns of marble which adorn the Electoral Palace, they
went about admiring the grandiose effects of German architecture, and
finding everywhere new treasures both modern and antique.
From time to time the highways along which the two friends rode at
leisure on their way to Andernach, led them over the crest of some
granite hill that was higher than the rest. Thence, through a clearing of
the forest or cleft in the rocky barrier, they caught sudden glimpses of
the Rhine framed in stone or festooned with vigorous vegetation. The
valleys, the forest paths, the trees exhaled that autumnal odor which
induced to reverie; the wooded summits were beginning to gild and to
take on the warm brown tones significant of age; the leaves were
falling, but the skies were still azure and the dry roads lay like yellow
lines along the landscape, just then illuminated by the oblique rays of

the setting sun. At a mile and a half from Andernach the two friends
walked their horses in silence, as if no war were devastating this
beautiful land, while they followed a path made for the goats across the
lofty walls of bluish granite between which foams the Rhine. Presently
they descended by one of the declivities of the gorge, at the foot of
which is placed the little town, seated coquettishly on the banks of the
river and offering a convenient port to mariners.
"Germany is a beautiful country!" cried one of the two young men, who
was named Prosper Magnan, at the moment when he caught sight of
the painted houses of Andernach, pressed together like eggs in a basket,
and