Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-11-14
VISIT TO ST. BERNARD,
Natures LOveliest Charms
as Seen in Switzerland.
ANIGHT IN A FAMOUS CONVENT.
Graphic Description OF the Scenery
as Observed From the Top
of the Mountain.

MILAN, Sept. 26.-Originally in
{ ended to write you this letter from the
Convent of the Great st. Bernard in
stsad Of from trattoria in Milan, but
had very little time at my disposal dur
ing my stay among the clouds, and
wAs. moreover, too much fatigued by
the uphill trips to put pen to paper
Some three weeks ago l found myself
With few Italian friends, after rather
long, circuitous tour. snugly housed in
quaint little inn at Aosta, where, afteI
dns consideration, we decided on paying
: visit the next day to the world-re'
nownsd monastery of the Augustinian
nonks. 1 was heart and soul in favor
Of the excursion from the very start, for
Il has been for years one of my fondest
aspirations to step up those rocky defiles
Of which ! read so much in song and
story; to gaze on that remarkable pile
Of buildings where for centuries human
charity and benevolence had reached
their apotheosis; to feast my eyes on
those mountain passes over which Ma.
poleon's conquering legions sped on their
march toward the fertile plains Of Lom-
hardy; to spend some hours treading
those romantic haunts that used to start
MP 80 vividly before my boyish fancy
in the dim past as l wasted the mid
night oil over the graphic pages of the
Hcadsman of Berne. With the gray
dawn of an August morning we com.
menced our journey, provided with a
guide and pair of mules; and, after a
several hours trip through Jagged rocks
and over heather byways we reached
the village of Etroubles, where the
mountains to the right, dotted with
picturesque villas and green with the
overhanging foliage of miniature groves,
formed gentle incline along which we
could see the granite steps of several
Winding staircases. Further up in
In front of us lay the lovely hamlet of
St. Oyen, girdled with Alpine larch and
cedar trees, end arrayed in soft arcadian
beauty that formed striking contrast
with the barren cliffs and glaciers far
away overhead. st. Oyen, by the by,
holds an honored place in the chron-
icles of old. 1t was, we are told, the
frat community that broke out in open
rebellion against the Infamous custom of
the Middle Ages-the abominable jus
prince noctis by virtue of which feudal
lords had the privilege of making their
own of serfs wives on the wedding night.
The burghers of st. Oyen rose in mass
enc fine morning and with flashing cime-
ters surrounded the residence of their
master, whom they took prisoner, and
immediately afterward escorted to the
church, where they compelled him to
swear before the Blessed Sacrament that
he would henceforth and forever" re-
nouncs all right to the particular priv.
ilege in question. The chevalier (oh, ye
heavens, what misnomer y seemed to
swallow the bitter pill with the utmost
equanimity, and after the solemn pledge
to behave himself properly for the
future, he was set at liberty. Scarcely,
however, had he been well out Of the
peasants hands when he fed in secret
from the village and wended his way
downward to Aosta, the capital Of the
then principality, and Invoked the assist
ance Of the prince to put down the stub.
born people and give him back those
subtle sensual pleasures of which they
had so shamefully deprived him. The
Prince of Aosta sided with his vassal,
but the inhabitants, rather than allow
themselves to be any longer smirched in
their cenjugal honor, "foided their tents
like the Arabs and silently stole away"
across the Great st. Bernard into Swift
xerland, where they remained for years,
pining like the exiles in Evangeline for
. glimpse of the land of their early love
till better times returned, when the sur
vivors were permitted once more to rest
in peace away among their native hills.
st. Oyen is to-day the property, or
mostly so. of the Augustinian brothers
Here the young dogs of the hospital, un.
able to bear the piercing cold of the up
per regions, are we'll cared for in snugly
furnished kennels during the winter. A
half hours steady march, in the course
of which we take our turn on the mules,
brings us from st. Oyen to st. Remy,
while the guide. In the usual sing. g.song
style of the confraterity, tells us how
astoundinglf grateful we should be to
him for having provided us with such
historic animals. Historic" l cried in
in amazement, "what do you mean?' II
mean, signor," he cried, "that the mule
Giovanni You are now riding was once
ridden in this very same pass by Menotti
while your friends mule had
the honor of carrying our Queen Mar
Qherita on his back" As, however,
neither my friend nor myself seemed to
have properly appreciated the historic"
Rlories associated with our saddles, the
guide shook his head mournfully. pity
ing us, suppose, from his heart for our
patent ignorance and stupidity. If we
were the lucky dogs he thought we
should be under such circumstances we
must have kept our luck to ourselves, for
he couldn't see any signs of it on our
Although the little road
from st. Remy upward is somewhat rug
ged, the mules were experienced enough
TO pick their steps carefully and with
much precision. and we soon arrived at
the borders OF small lake, on the azure
surface of which snow wreaths and blocks
of ice were disporting themselves under
the caresses of every passing zephyr. All
around us were the Alpine peaks and
their dark, mysterious caverns and my.
riad precipices, around which were clus-
tered many gigantic glacier hanging
over ghastly gorges, Enthusiastically. y.curved
rocks, black as night and repulsive as
the grimest of shadows, or arrayed in
abs of peerless white and dazzling mag.
nificence; wastes where verdure is quite
unknown. and where the eye is relieved
only by the glimpse Of some solitary
stunted cedar. its trunk embedded in a |
granite rift, and its palsied arms lifted
up, as if in mournful appeal to the gray
sky. Here and there too, like an oasis
in the desert, are found the edelweiss,
that valuable little Alpine flower, sole
of those "stars of earth" that |