The breakfast was now nearly finished, though the process of eating it had been a good deal impeded by the conversation, so large a share of it having fallen to Mr. George. Mr. George, however, explained to Rollo that their first day's journey from Basle would be south, towards Berne, the capital of the country-a city which was situated near the centre of the northern slope which Mr. George had described.
"Do we go by a railway?" asked Rollo.
"No," said Mr. George; "by a diligence."
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3a-3b: Mr. George, in speaking these words, did not pronounce them as you would suppose from the manner in which they are written. He pronounced them very much as if they were spelled Tru-ah Ru-ah. In the same manner, the German words, Drei Koenige, he pronounced as if they were spelled Dhrai Ker-nig-ger.]
CHAPTER IV. THE DILIGENCE.
A diligence is a sort of stage coach used in France and Switzerland, and generally on the continent of Europe. It is constructed very differently, however, from an American stage coach, being divided into four distinct compartments. Rollo had seen a diligence in Paris, and so he could understand very easily the conversation which ensued between himself and his uncle in respect to the seats which they should take in the one in which they were to travel to Berne. In order, however, to enable the reader of this book to understand it, I must here give a brief description of this kind of vehicle. The engraving on page 77 is a very faithful representation of one of them. There are three windows in the side of it. Each of these windows leads to a different compartment of the coach. In addition to these three compartments, there is, over the foremost of these, on the top of the coach, another, making four in all. This compartment on the top is called the banquette.
These coaches are so large that they have a conductor. The man who drives sometimes sits on a small seat placed in front of the banquette, and sometimes he rides on one of the horses. In either case, however, he has nothing to do but to attend to his team. The passengers and the baggage are all under the conductor's care.
The compartment immediately beneath the banquette, which is the front compartment of the body of the coach, is called the coupe. The coupe extends across the whole coach, from one side to the other; but it is quite narrow. It has only one seat,-a seat facing the horses,-with places upon it for three passengers. There are windows in front, by which the passengers can look out under the coachman's seat when there is a coachman's seat there. The doors leading to the coupe are in the sides.
The compartment immediately behind the coupe is called the interior. It is entirely separate from the coupe. There are two seats, which extend from one side of the coach to the other, and have places upon them for three passengers each, making six in all. The three passengers who sit on one of these seats must, of course, ride with their backs to the horses. The doors leading to the interior are in the sides. In fact, the interior has within exactly the appearance of a common hackney coach, with seats for six passengers.
Behind the interior is the fourth compartment, which is called the rotonde. It is like a short omnibus. The door is behind, and the seats are on the sides. This omnibus compartment is so short that there is only room for three people on each side, and the seats are not very comfortable.
Very genteel people, who wish to be secluded and to ride somewhat in style, take the coupe. The seats in the coupe are very comfortable, and there is a very good opportunity to see the country through the front and side windows. The price is much higher, however, for seats in the coupe than in any other part of the diligence.
The mass of common travellers generally take places in the interior. The seats there are comfortable, only there is not a very good opportunity to see the country; for there are only two windows, one on each side, in the top of the door.
People who do not care much about the style in which they travel, but only desire to have the best possible opportunity to view the country and to have an amusing time, generally go up to the banquette. The places here are cheaper than they are even in the interior, and very much cheaper than they are in the coupe.
The cheapest place of all, however, is in the rotonde, which is the omnibus-like compartment, in the end of the diligence, behind. This compartment is generally filled with laborers, soldiers, and servants; and sometimes nurses and children are put here.
The baggage is always stored upon the top of the diligence, behind the banquette, and directly over the interior and the rotonde. It is packed away very carefully there, and is protected by a strong leather covering, which is well strapped down over it. All these things you see plainly represented in the engraving.
We now return to the conversation which was held between Rollo and Mr. George at the close of their breakfast.
"I have got some letters to write after breakfast," said Mr. George, "and I should like to go directly to my room and write them. So I wish you would find out when the diligence goes next to Berne, and take places in it for you and me."
"Well," said Rollo, "I will; only how shall I do it? Where shall I go?"
"I don't know any thing about it," replied Mr. George. "The guide book says that there is a diligence from Basle to Berne; and I suppose there is an office for it somewhere about town. Do you think you can find it?"
"I'll try," said Rollo. "But how do we take seats in it? Is there a book for us to write our names in, with the place where they are to call for us?"
"I do not know any thing about it," said Mr. George. "All I know is, that I want to go to Berne with you some way or other in the diligence, and I wish to have you plan and arrange it all."
"Well," said Rollo, "I will, if I can find out. Only tell me what places I shall take."
"I don't care particularly about that," replied Mr. George; "only let it be where we can see best. It must be either in the coupe or in the banquette. We can't see at all, scarcely, in the other compartments."
"Well," said Rollo, "I should like to be where I can see. But would you rather it would be in the coupe, or in the banquette?"
"That is just as you please," replied Mr. George. "There are some advantages in being in the banquette."
"What are they?" asked Rollo.
"There are four advantages," replied Mr. George. "First, it is up very high, and is all open, so that you have a most excellent chance to see."
"Yes," said Rollo. "I shall like that."
"The second advantage," said Mr. George, "is, that it costs less. The places in the banquette are quite cheap."
"Yes," said Rollo. "I like that. So we can save some of our money."
"The third advantage," continued Mr. George, "is, that we have a great deal better opportunity to hear talking there. There are usually five persons in that part of the coach-the coachman, the conductor, and three passengers. That is, there will be one passenger besides you and me. He will probably be talking with the conductor part of the time, and the conductor will be talking with the coachman, and we shall be amused by hearing what they say."
"But there are six persons in the interior," said Rollo, "to talk."
"True," replied Mr. George; "but, then, they are usually not so sociable there as they are up on the banquette. Besides, the noise of the wheels on the hard gravel roads is so loud there that we cannot hear very well. Then, moreover, when we stop to change horses, the hostlers and postilions come out, and our coachman and conductor often have a great deal of amusing conversation with them, which we can hear from the banquette; but we could not hear it, or see the process of harnessing and unharnessing, from the interior, nor even very well from the coupe."
"Well," said Rollo. "I like that. But that makes only three advantages. You said there were four."