The Initials. Baroness Jemima Montgomery Tautphoeus
mode of life in Tyrol. I have promised to visit them should I ever be in their neighbourhood. Their father is a forester, and the eldest is engaged to be married to that silent, shy man, in the green shooting-jacket. However, he was not too shy to wait for her at the foot of the ladder, when he supposed we were all asleep.”
“So they really did take a walk by moonlight!”
“The moonlight did not last long; and I do not believe they went farther than the bench outside the door, where they found more company than they expected. Romantic feelings and sentimental contemplations are not confined to German women; there are few men here who would not sacrifice a few hours’ rest on an occasion like yesterday, to sit—and smoke in the moonbeams.”
“How ingeniously you always contrive to alloy your praise of us,” said her husband, laughing.
“And yet I am strict to truth, for the fumes of cigars ascended with the murmuring of voices, last night, to my window, and obliged me to close it.”
“Well, we shall have nothing of the kind to-night, as we are likely to be alone on the alp.”
“I have been thinking it would be as well if we were to go to Berchtesgaden, and sleep comfortably in beds; I do not feel quite equal to another night passed on the hay.”
CHAPTER V.
AN ALP.
To Berchtesgaden they went. We shall not follow Hamilton, either when he inspected the salt-works, or visited the beautiful lakes in its immediate neighbourhood; nor would we accompany him to the alp, which he afterwards ascended, were it not to give our readers a slight idea of those excursions so common in the mountainous parts of Bavaria, and of the little importance attached to a chamois hunt. They were unceremoniously joined in their expedition by a number of hunters, foresters, and some officers who were on leave of absence. A. Z. went with them very willingly, as she heard that an acquaintance of hers was spending a few weeks on the alp for her health, enjoying what is called “Sommer frisch”; and, in fact, on reaching the châlet, which was situated in the midst of the mountains, they found a very nice-looking, sunburnt person, sitting with her maid before the door. She was surprised to see the Z—‘s, but not in the least to see the others, as she said scarcely a week passed that someone did not come to hunt; and on hearing that Hamilton spoke German she pointed upwards towards the rocks before the house, and said that in the evening he would see the chamois leaping about there.
“She is destroying all the mystery of a chamois-hunt,” said Hamilton, turning to A. Z. “I could run up that mountain, I think.”
“I would not advise you to try it; nor, indeed, can I consent to your making any excursion on the mountain alone, as long as you are travelling with us. Violent deaths are not at all uncommon here; it is not long since a girl, gathering herbs, fell over a precipice and was dashed to pieces; and a man was found nearly starved to death, in a place to which he had climbed, but from which he found it impossible to extricate himself. That old man,” she added, lowering her voice, “that old Jäger, who is now speaking to Herrmann, had some dispute with his only son when they were on a chamois-hunt together; people say that a push from him, in the heat of argument, precipitated the young man thousands of feet below; his body was found in a dreadfully mutilated state, but there was no evidence against the old man, for they had been alone; and as such accidents are but too common, the exact state of the case has never been ascertained, and his confessor alone knows what happened.”
“Well, Hamilton, are you disposed to try a shot this evening?” asked Baron Z—; “three or four chamois have been seen in the neighbourhood.”
“I shall go with you as a looker-on; but as I am a very bad shot, I think one of these poles will be of more use to me than a rifle.”
“We shall send some men up to beat them down to us,” said Baron Z—. “There is no use in climbing more than is necessary.”
“Can you not use dogs?” asked Hamilton.
“They could never be properly trained; for although the chamois do not in the least mind the clattering of stones or gravel, any unusual sound immediately attracts their attention. A solitary hunter has only to avoid this, and to take care that the wind blows in his face, or, at least, not from him in the direction where he expects to find them. Their scent is something almost incredible, and only equalled by their shyness.”
“It is, after all, a very difficult shot,” said Hamilton.
“Yes, in Tyrol and Switzerland, where they have been hunted until they have taken refuge in the most inaccessible places—though even there, I doubt the truth of most of the wonderful stories related of them, especially of their so maliciously forcing the hunters down the precipices. It has been proved that the chamois have no remarkable preference for very high or cold mountains; they only choose them in order to have a good retreat among the rocks when pursued.”
“That I observed, too, last year,” said an officer, who was of the party, “at Prince Lamberg’s, where there is the best chamois-hunting in Germany, perhaps. They were there so well preserved that they were not more shy or difficult to shoot than other game; and instead of their only being to be found in the evening, or at dawn, they rambled about all day; and when the weather was mild, did not even seek the shade.”
“I have heard of Prince Lamberg’s mountains,” said Baron Z——; “he has fifteen or sixteen hundred chamois on them, I hear; but, after all, when one can have them without much trouble, one does not value them so highly; for instance, I shot a chamois some years ago, in Bayrishzill, but was out nearly twenty-four hours before I got a shot—here is his beard, which I have preserved and worn ever since,” he added, taking off his hat and showing a little fan-like ornament, which Hamilton had before observed without knowing its value.
“Then they have beards like goats?” said Hamilton.
“No,” replied Baron Z—. “This is called a beard, but it is the hair which grows along the back.”
“I see something very like a chamois up there,” said the officer, who held a small telescope to his eye.
Everyone wished to look—some could not find the place—others imagined they saw something—one thought it was the stump of a tree—but some practised eyes having pronounced it to be the desired animals feeding, the party broke up and the chase began.
Hamilton climbed with an ease and lightness which surprised his companions; but he so often stopped to admire a handsome beech-tree, or to “seek for fresh evening air in the opening glades,” that they by degrees went on, and he found himself at last alone in a spot where some convulsion of Nature had split the mountain partly asunder. He saw far, far beneath him, the road into Tyrol; the heavy-laden wagons, which a few days before he had thought packed dangerously high, now wound, pigmy-like, along, the motion of the endless team of horses scarcely perceptible. Hill rose beyond hill, until the prospect was bounded by the grotesque masses of rocks which, rising from the wooded mountains, increase their gigantic appearance by their partial concealment behind those light wreaths of clouds which seldom entirely desert their summits. For the inhabitants of the valley, the sun had long disappeared; but around Hamilton everything was in the glow of sunset: he seated himself on the mossy turf and deliberately resigned himself to contemplation. No place could have been better chosen, and he was therefore surprised and disappointed to find that the sublime thoughts which he had expected did not present themselves to his mind. He admired the surpassing luxuriance of the vegetation in the valleys, the different-coloured foliage of the trees; the wild irregular course of the foaming river;—he tried to think of the greatness of the Creator in His works, the insignificance of man and his endeavours—in vain. An agreeable feeling of general satisfaction stole over him, while fancy conveyed him home to his family, to his youthful friends. A handsome English residence rose before him, with well-kept lawns, gravelled walks, and shrubberies; groups of well-dressed people were visible among the trees, and