صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

occurrit, exemptoque vexillo triumphum meruit, 1543." The artillery which was brought to bear upon the fort made but little impression: it was impossible for them to undermine the rock, so Montford was enabled to hold out until Dorea had time to approach with his fleet on the one side, and the Marquis du Guasto with his forces from Milan on the land side, causing the French and Turks to raise the siege and beat a retreat in the best manner they were able.

Our view from the summit was beautiful in the extreme. Spread out like a map, far below us, was the city, with its three suburbs of San Giovanni Battista, della Poudriere, and that of the Croix de Marbre. To the south, stretching far away to the horizon, were the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean, dancing and sparkling in the brilliant sunshine: water, and nothing but water, betwixt us and Algiers, on the north coast of Africa. To the south-west, the coast line extended on and on, with bold and jutting headlands, till they were lost in the distance. Finely situate on the summit of Montarone was the fortress of Montalbano. We lingered until the shades of evening cautioned us to descend, which we did at length most reluctantly. On passing the remains of the great well, whence the supply of water so invaluable to a besieged fortress was drawn, we were astonished at the loud croaking of the frogs, and could hardly believe it possible that sounds so loud could be caused by them. We afterwards found that their brethren in the lagoons of Tuscany could equal, if not out-do them in the loudness of their croaking. A gentleman who had accompanied us during our ascent, on our return to the city pointed out, with emotion, the house where Garibaldi was born. We found that he had served under the old General in his Italian campaign, when the King of Naples, overwhelmed by fear, left his throne and capital and fled in terror and dismay.

The earthquake growls beneath his feet,
Vesuvius banks her fires o'erhead;

Bewildered Sbirri through the street

Slink with a tamed and timorous tread ;
The priests hold out their trembling hands.
In vain to sainted Januarius;
The despot's hungry, hireling bands

Begin to deem their pay precarious;

Armed retribution pours its force

From Spartivent to Porto Fino, Resistance melts before its course, Et-exit Bombalino.

No friend in this his hour of need,
No hope or hold in his despair;
Each stay turns out a broken reed,

Each safeguard hath become a snare ;
The rogues who were so swift to serve
Are even swifter to betray;

The backs which bent with supplest curve
On ready hinges turn away.

What faith is bought with fear and gold,
'Tis time, at length, that even he know :
His soldiers false, his courtiers cold,
Et-exit Bombalino.

His dungeons have given up their dead;
Or, worse, their living dead restored;
Truth lifts, amazed, her muffled head,
Unchecked for once by stick or sword,
And from the light that beams about

Her sadly scarred yet stately brow,
Slink back, abashed, the rabble rout
That battened in the dark till now.
Amid such greeting and good-will

As subjects unto king and queen owe;
Who rule-but by the power of ill-
Sic exit Bombalino.

And Garibaldi's face is worn

Where the King's image ought to be,

And Garibaldi's name is borne

On wings of blessing o'er the sea.

At Garibaldi's summons spring

Men's ready hearts, and hands, and treasure;

Before him Italy doth fling

Her new-roused life in stintless measure.

So late alone against a host,

And now a host, as land and sea know,
Unboasting, he crowns Cæsar's boast,*
Et-exit Bombalino.

So be it still, when powers of ill

And powers of good in issue meet,
Hand against hand, brand against brand,
In conflict for the right are set.

May evil show what rotten roots

Its hugest upas-growth confirm,

And good make known what mighty roots
Are latent in the smallest germ.

With jubilee and joyous din,

From Sicily to San Marino,

Lo! Garibaldi enters in,

Et-exit Bombalino.

SOOCHOW.

BY THE REV. E. R. BARRETT, B.A.

T is difficult now to realise the estimate in which this far-famed

IT

city of Soochow† was held by the Chinese only a few years ago. "Above is Heaven, below are Soochow and Hangchow," ran the native proverb; and from the time when Marco Polo described the wondrous beauty and wealth and gaiety he saw here and in Hangchow, down to recent days, the city has ranked in the very first class, both for its size and population, and also for the abundant means it afforded for dissipation and pleasure. Here you could find the finest silk and crape in the Empire; and here also you could

* "Veni, vidi, vici."

It is hardly legitimate to press too far the etymological meaning of names of places in China, any more than it would be to draw conclusions from the names of English towns, such as Maidenhead, Reading, or Ramsgate; but I may just note that the meaning of the two characters composing the name of this city is, “The Happy Stream." It had another name, Koosoo, of which Koo is a name for women, and the reference is to the number and beauty of the women in the city as constituting its happiness.

meet the prettiest women, both the wardrobe and the harem of the Emperor being popularly supposed to be recruited from this city. Every attraction that wealth and pleasure, splendid buildings and a gay people could offer, united to make Soochow a favourite and famed city, not in the province only but throughout the Empire.

Soochow is about eighty miles from Shanghai, and is a much larger city and of higher rank. Its walls are ten to fourteen miles in circumference, and enclose a population of some half a million people. To foreigners, Soochow presents attractions almost as great as to the Chinese themselves, but of a very different character. Outwardly it has few inviting features. Its streets are as narrow, its atmosphere as stiflingly close, and it is almost as destitute of "lions," as are generally all the ordinary large and dirty cities of China. But its ancient history invests it with an interest to everyone not utterly destitute of veneration for what reaches back into ages long buried in the past. It is remarkable that the Chinese, with all their love for the manners and customs of bygone ages, seem to be destitute of any interest in antiquarian pursuits. They keep their histories from age to age carefully, but with materials at hand for obtaining wonderfully vivid views of scenes enacted years and years back (as in the case of a city, for instance, in the Shantung province which, I hear, has a history dating back from the time of Abraham), they yet are quite content to let their knowledge be confined to the dry and lifeless stories of their historians. They have no idea of bringing heroes of the past again on to the stage, or of making them recount the story of their prowess or wisdom, by unfolding the monuments they erected in their lifetime. It would seem almost irreverence to the Chinese mind to discuss the site and circumstances of their ancient battles, or the homes and scenes of their ancient sages. Their writings exist, and as for all things else, "are they not written in the book of the chronicles ?" Of these chronicles, Soochow possesses one in the shape of fifty-six volumes, called the "Topographical History of Soochow," from which may be gathered one or two particulars of the age and history of the city. It seems, according to this native record,*—and it is generally taken as trustworthy as far as regards dates,—that it was

* I am indebted for a portion of these facts to an account of Soochow published some years ago in the North China Daily News, which I am compelled to quote from memory.

during the reign of the twenty-fifth Emperor of the Cheu dynasty that the order went forth for the building of a great city to the south. To an educated Chinese this date would be sufficient to estimate the age of the city; he would remember that Confucius was then in his twenty fifth year. As Western readers, however, are hardly likely to know in what year the twenty-fifth Emperor of the Cheu dynasty ascended the throne, another clue must be given. It was four years before Darius I. gave the Jews permission to resume rebuilding their Temple, that is, in the year 524 B.C., when the foundations of Rome had been laid but 229 years, and nearly 100 years before Herodotus commenced his history, that the ground was marked out, and the foundations of this old and still vigorous city were laid. Rather a long pedigree this, and there are still many monuments in the city with almost as long a genealogy.

Soochow is enclosed on all sides by a high and massive wall, and as the city is nearly four-square, a wall on each side faces due north, south, east, and west. The wall itself is an imposing sight; it is about thirty to forty feet high, and is built of granite for about half its height, the other half being of brick. Every hundred feet there is a bastion about twelve to fifteen feet square; the embrasures are twenty feet apart, and between each embrasure there are two holes for the use of muskets or bows. On the inside the wall has a parapet about six feet high, and from the terreplein, which is about eighteen feet wide, a steep grassy bank slopes down to the streets of the city. Besides several water-gates, the city has six entrances, at each of which there is a broad and sloping platform, leading to the top of the wall, and some of the best views of the city are obtained from this elevation. Over each of these city gates a high tower has been erected, from which a still better view is obtained of the interior and of the surrounding country. Ascending that at the west gate the prospect is extremely interesting. At one's feet regular channels, through the otherwise unbroken sea of roof, indicate the course of the leading but narrow thoroughfares; and one or two glimpses can be obtained of the wonderful network of canals which ramifies to every part of the city. At short intervals of space rise the higher and more imposing gables of the temples, with their beaked roofs, and here and there an open space and the presence of a few trees points out the residence of one of the principal mandarins. Looking away from the

« السابقةمتابعة »